The Pittsburgh Pirates ended up getting some good starts out of A.J. Burnett last season but they didn’t want to pay for him to try and recapture that in 2014.
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Now that the team is starting to get deeper into a playoff push, the Pirates have been rumored as being a team that could go back after Burnett on the market. That’s something that just won’t happen though for very valid reasons involving the salary cap and the unwillingness by the Pirates to be heavy spenders.
According to MLB scribe Steve Adams, one player you shouldn’t bet on being being back Burnett, as the Bucs didn’t want to spend on his salary this season and won’t be looking to pick it back up with less than half the season to play.
"Pirates won’t be in on Burnett as long as there’s the possibility of him earning $12.75MM+ next year. They didn’t want to pay him that much when he was a year younger and coming off a better season."
The Pirates got some good starts out of Burnett but he’s not going to be someone they overpay to get. That’s clearly the case here as Burnett isn’t worth what he’s getting paid — not even from a contender — and it’ll be interesting to see if he lands somewhere before the end of the month deadline rolls around.
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