Burnett could be a Brave soon
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Dec 04, 2008 
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It appears likely A.J. Burnett will be signed before the Winter Meetings.
The Braves have made the right-hander a four-year offer with a vesting option for a fifth season according to reports out of Atlanta. The Yankees are expected to counter that offer sometime tomorrow if they have not already.
The Yankees are not believed to be interested in a long-term deal with Burnett, so their offer could be for a shorter-term deal but with a higher average annual value.
The Braves are believed to have offered four years and $64 million.
Meanwhile, Giants GM Brian Sabean said tonight that his team is not planning to make an offer to CC Sabathia, acknowledging that other teams can outmuscle them financially.
Not that I had any great desire for the Yanks to sign Burnett, but I get the sick feeling the best we’re going to do with FA pitching is Lowe, and then we’re going to throw a ton of money at Texeira just to compensate for our shaky staff…
1. A-rod is a moron. YOU ARE AMERICAN ALEX!
2. If thats truly the terms of the deal, Burnett should jump all over it since its probably the max he could get.
I’m pretty happy about a higher aav, shorter term offer to the mercurial righty – I don’t want another Pavano who falls on his wallet, bruises his rear and disappears for months on end.
Atlanta is not really a threat to the Yanks – so better AJ go there than Boston or another AL team.
Yankees will regret losing Burnett
its actually good Burnett will be a Brave, he’s leaving the AL East without the Yanks having him 6 times.
Why would AJ sign until he sees what the other teams have to offer? Oh and the Yankees strategy of shock and awe by blowing out the market on CC has worked perfectly, all other bidders are scared off. CC needs to decide, Yankees or some other team for less money. You know what any agent would want. So in the end, we’ll get CC and Andy and hopefully a bat. Patience.
CC and Andy would be just Dandy.
Jeff -
I think you are spot on – drop a huge bid on the guy who is worth a king’s ransom to kill the pretenders – what is CC’s 2nd best offer? chump change. (and CC doesn’t strike me as a chump in any way)
For the 2nd tier guys, make competitive offers – Pettitte, AJ, Lowe, even Peavy – just put your line out there and see who bites.
good, im glad we wont be getting burnett. give me CC and Tex and im happy. with a rotation of
cc
wang
pettitte
joba
hughes/aceves/kennedy
and then with a lineup of
damon
jeter
tex
arod
nady
posada
matsui
cano
gardner
and im a happy camper
I have mixed feelings on this.
The way many are happy to have him leave the AL East is telling isn’t it?
No doubt the guy’s got great stuff and he does seem to kick it up a notch against the Yanks which could translate into him thriving in the Bronx.
Anybody know the deal with insuring his contract? Does any of it get covered given his history?
Wouldn’t be surprised or overly disappointed if the Yanks offer 4 yrs @ 66mil.
I hope the braves get him, and i’d much rather throw money at sheets then lowe, and bring andy back. CC,Wang,Sheets,Andy,Joba, 4 aces in one staff
Yankees clearly did the smart thing in dropping a heavy bid on CC, very wise move. Yet CC “apparently” does NOT want to come to NY.
Surely if he does come here, it does not matter HOW he got here, but it galls me to have a player on the Yankees that clearly does not want to be an east coast resident, and he has done poorly V the SOX , yes short sample, but the facts are da facts.
Grab Burnett so at least we have something.
“Anybody know the deal with insuring his contract? Does any of it get covered given his history? ”
It is a good question -
Lloyd’s of London used to insure all sorts of things (Bear’s QB Jim McMahons’ shoulder, etc.) but I think with the meltdown in insurance/financial markets (AIG for example is now nationalized) that this type of coverage must be more expensive. Pavano was covered according to reports. But it is a different world now.
Yanks play the Braves in interleague this year. Odds of Burnett pitching one of those games for old times sake?
Law in his chat today said this about signing Sheets: “Sheets has a chronic back issue AND he ended last season hurt”. Needless to say he would not sign him.
sign Sheets for a cheap 1 year contract, low risk in my opinion
We certainly have weathered some CC storms lately. Luckily it was all rumor and no substance. I guess the dodgers still have to bow out. They certainly have a need.
I still think CC was (is) hoping for a 130 mil offer from the a Cali team and then waiting to see if the Yanks up their offer to 150 mil. I don’t believe he would leave 20 mil on the table. 10 mil? Possibly.
I have no problems with what he is doing. It’s all business at this point so there’s no use in speculating on whether he wants to pitch in NY or not. If he signs, everybody will be all smiles and hopes at the press conference.
So, Patrick…Rodriguez is a moron because he hasn’t said one word about it, and most likely doesn’t even know this has been mentioned?
“sign Sheets for a cheap 1 year contract, low risk in my opinion”
except for the risk that 29 other teams, including the only organization he has even known, would be more than happy to do the same.
why would Sheets sign a “cheap 1 year” contract with the Yankees?
Burnett wants a NTC and Braves don’t do NTC’s. Of course he’d be hard to trade with a 16M/year contract, and to answer the question about insurance, I believe I read that insurance companies might only insure 20% of a major contract. His wife currently had 9 limo rides to and from Baltimore to visit family in his Toronto contract.
“Ideally,” the two best pitcher signings for us would be Sabathia and Burnett to compete in the AL East. I’d give Burnett a higher yearly salary for 3 years and two more vesting option years. As far as Sabathia maybe an opt out clause after 4 years would satisfy him.
NO,NO,NO to Lowe!
Leary of Sheets and Peavy-Buyer beware-Bad Mechanics!!
If we need another lefty there’s Wolf and Perez. Wolf is a strikeout pitcher and IMO would fare better than Lowe in our division and would cost a whole lot less and is 32 yo.
It’s not just people here who hate Arod…
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....749AAraxAr
cc will be a yankee.
the angels don’t wan’t him,the dodgers,padres,a’s are to cheap.the giants just spent 16 million a year on players,the market stinks,only 2 offers & the yankees are 40 million higher than the brewers.
no way he leaves 40 million on the table for being close to home for 80 games.
sabathia will be insulted by the brewers 5 yr/100 million dollar offer & a rumor of the giants considering a 5 year just under 100 million dollar offer.
he will be mad if no team comes close.
“So, Patrick…Rodriguez is a moron because he hasn’t said one word about it, and most likely doesn’t even know this has been mentioned?”
Why would Ortiz lie? If what he says is true then yes A-rod is a moron. If it turns out this is just a rumor and Ortiz was mistaken or lying then I’m off base. But honestly, why would Ortiz even say that if A-rod hadn’t told him?
I’m down with Burnett. Just say no to Lowe.
“Ideally,” the two best pitcher signings for us would be Sabathia and Burnett to compete in the AL East. I’d give Burnett a higher yearly salary for 3 years and two more vesting option years. As far as Sabathia maybe an opt out clause after 4 years would satisfy him.
I’m with ya, Trader. Opt-out after two might even work better. No way Yanks compete if they can’t match power arms with Boston, Tampa.
“why would Sheets sign a “cheap 1 year” contract with the Yankees?”
To add to that, if Sheets couldn’t get anything more than a 1-year contract on the open market, I’m pretty sure he would just accept arbitration from the Brewers.
I don’t think CC Sabathia is signing anywhere for less than 140M. He’s just waiting to see if LA or Sf jump into this, which they won’t. He’s not leaving anything on the table. If he didn’t care about money, he’d take Milwaukee’s offer.
Fantastic News. The Yankees would have regretted signing the constantly injured and ridiculously overrated Burnett for a long time.
“It’s not just people here who hate Arod…”
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....749AAraxAr
Everyone who answered the question was supportive of him playing with whatever team he wanted to. No hate there.
Did I miss something?
Where does that say the Yankees won’t be getting Burnett?
It says the Yanks will counter-offer.
Did any of you read what was written or just the misleading headline?
I know a lot of you like to rail about Burnett’s injuries, but the guy did make 112 starts the last four years. And he averaged over 6 innings in those starts.
Give me Burnett and CC and beef up the bench with Baldelli or Wiggington or Loretta and I’ll shut up about Tex… I promise!
I could not possibly give a rats rump who anyone plays for in the WBC. I don’t care if the event even takes place. It’s a make believe “competition” in a silly attempt to further “globalize” baseball. I hope no Yankee ever pitches in it… imagine losing a key guy because he threw too many intense pitches in a glorified exhibitiion series in March?
What if Joba plunks A-Rod in a pre-exhibition exhibition game or Jeter takes another one on that oft-injured left hand?
Just say no!
A Burnett deal for Yankees at three years to match Braves would have to be over $20 mill per. Doesn’t make sense to me. How many times has Burnett hit 18 wins? Does anyone remember Pavano? It just doesn’t add up. If he does well for Atlanta, fine. Have a nice day and good luck Metsies.
CC is the key,the absolute key to the Yankee chances…pay $150m if you have to. CC, Wang, Joba, Andy, and then take your pick…Hughes, Derek Lowe, Jon Garland…we have much more flexibilty.
I really hope Burnett takes the Braves offer. I’d love to see him out of the division where he can’t beat us and not signed by the Yankees where he’d probably spend a large portion of his time on the DL.
I don’t know why some of you are so down on Burnett. If your Yankees had a better chance at getting him right now, y’all would be on cloud nine! I remember watching him face the Braves this year in Toronto, and he really looked like a different pitcher as far as throwing more change-ups and curves than before…in other words, he’s pitching now, instead of just being mostly being a flame thrower. I think that was a huge reason for his injuries in the past.