Ken Rosenthal has the latest on the possible trade of A.J. Burnett from the Yankees to the Pirates. He says he Yankees would like to get the deal done before this weekend, when their Spring Training opens, but it doesn’t sound like they’ll have many other options if the Pirates don’t agree to their terms.
The Indians and Yankees never got serious about a potential trade that would have sent Burnett to Cleveland for Travis Hafner. The Angels showed interest, but Burnett has the Angels on his no-trade list, and doesn’t want to play on the West Coast because his wife has a fear of flying.
That leaves the Pirates, whose potential trade for Burnett has hit a snag over the quality of the prospects the Pirates will send back, and the amount of the remaining $33 million on Burnett’s contract the Pirates will pay. It sounds like the Bucs don’t have much incentive to agree to the Yankees’ demands at this point. I doubt they ever had any plans to give up any significant prospects at all, and they shouldn’t be willing to pay more than $12 million or so of the $33 million.
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