The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Friday afternoon that they have signed A.J. Burnett to a one-year deal for $8.5 M. The 37-year-old righty pitched for the Pirates from 2012-13, before signing with the Philadelphia Phillies last year. Both Burnett and the Phillies declined their mutual option for 2015 this off-season.
Burnett made 34 starts for the Phillies and posted a 4.59 ERA and 1.41 WHIP over 213.2 innings. He had 190 strikeouts, but led the National League with 109 earned runs allowed and 96 walks. Those numbers were well off the 3.41 ERA and 1.23 WHIP he had in 393.1 innings with the Pirates. Burnett fills one of the spots left empty by Francisco Liriano and Edison Volquez, both of whom are free agents, though the Pirates haven’t ruled out re-signing one or both of them yet.
UPDATE 3:48 PM: Ken Rosenthal says that Burnett only wanted to negotiate with the Pirates.
Burnett’s agent, Darek Braunecker, on deal with #Pirates: “Not often a player has such an affinity for a team, teammates, city and fan base”
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 14, 2014
Braunecker said he did not negotiate with any other club, per Burnett’s instructions. Burnett only wanted to play for #Pirates.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 14, 2014
UPDATE 3:51 PM: Thoughts on the move from Tim Williams…
In his two years with the Pirates, Burnett looked like a top of the rotation starter. Then, last year with the Phillies, he looked like a middle of the rotation guy at-best, and a number four starter based on his overall numbers. He had a 4.59 ERA, but his 3.95 xFIP suggested he should be better going forward. A big issue was that his strikeouts were down and his walks were up.
The Pirates might be able to help him again with the walks. He has just four seasons with a BB% under 9.0 and two of those seasons came in Pittsburgh. A decrease in walks will certainly help him. There was also the issue of a sports hernia, which probably impacted his pitching in 2014. I’m not sure what the situation is with that injury, although Burnett has a conference call with the Pittsburgh media today, so I’m sure there will be some answers. It’s not an injury that should impact the 2015 season. Cole Hamels had off-season surgery on the injury a few years ago, and pitched a full season the following year. So if Burnett ends up needing surgery, it shouldn’t impact him.
At this point, I think Burnett could at least be a mid-rotation starter who could eat 190-200 innings, which is a great value at $8.5 M. The Pirates needed starting pitching this off-season, and Burnett will help them fill a lot of those innings. They still need a top of the rotation starter, but they also have plenty of room in the budget to make that happen. The updated payroll with Burnett has them at $75 M, and that’s not considering the possibility of Ike Davis being traded or non-tendered, which puts things closer to $70 M.
I’ll have more on the Burnett signing later today.
