The GM meetings have started up and Ricciardi says that the Jays are open to listening to offers on AJ Burnett.
Update: Ricciardi takes it back.
There's a couple things that apparently are triggering this. One is that Burnett has an opt out clause after next season. The other reason is that the Jays seemingly are frustrated with Burnett staying on the mound.
I mentioned a little while back that I didn't think that Burnett had a whole lot of trade value. If you're trading for him, he pitches well, and is healthy at the end of the season you only have him for one year. If he bombs or gets hurt he's likely not to opt out and then the team acquiring him is on the hook for $24 million over the next 2 years.
So what's one year of Burnett worth at $12 million? I'm not really sure. Nate Silver at BP suggested that Burnett was worth "one Grade-A prospect".
It's hard to imagine that the Jays trading Burnett makes the team better in 2008 - even being injured for 10 starts a year he's pretty valuable on the mound. And in the event the Jays made the playoffs don't you want a pitcher like Burnett on the mound?
As Silver put it trading Burnett "would still leave the glass of the 2010 Blue Jays no better
than half-full, while ruining any hopes of contention for this year, and making a lot of the big-dollar veteran contracts pointless".
So I think this will generate some interesting things in the GM and winter meetings, but ultimately I'm guessing that nothing comes of it and Burnett's pitching for the Jays next year.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20071106193602406