No word from Burnett on future
The baseball solstice occurred Friday — the midway point between the last game of the World Series and the first day of spring training — and no smoke had yet to billow from the A.J. Burnett residence in Monckton, Md.
The veteran right-hander said late last season that he would make a decision “within a few weeks after the season is over” about retiring or returning to pitch for the Pirates. A few weeks has turned into half the offseason and the 36-year-old free agent has yet to decide.
With the help of a handful of baseball sources and a degree in amateur psychiatry, a few things are starting to seem clear about the situation.
One is that Burnett has backed off his statement of last season that he would only continue playing if it were with the Pirates.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Burnett turned down a one-year offer from the Pirates for less than $10 million and they have not made a counteroffer. Burnett would have seemingly announced his retirement by now if he had planned to play only for the Pirates.
According to another source, the Baltimore Orioles have Burnett at the top of their free agent priority list. They would like him to be the workhorse in an otherwise young starting rotation, much the way he was with the Pirates the past two seasons.
Burnett is said to be intrigued about taking on another challenge like he did in Pittsburgh. Location is a big plus for the Orioles, too, because his wife doesn’t fly and he could stay home and play another season.
So, it seems if we see Burnett take a major-league mound again, it will be in the black-and-orange of the Orioles rather than the black-and-gold of the Pirates.
Call it the Orioles’ revenge of 1971 and 1979.
If the Pirates truly want to win next season, they would give up on the idea of having Jose Tabata, Andrew Lambo and Travis Snider compete for the starting right fielder’s job in spring training and hand it over to Gregory Polanco, their top prospect.
Polanco was named the Most Valuable Player of the Dominican Winter League this past week after hitting .331 in 44 games for Escogido with five home runs, 28 RBIs, seven stolen bases, a .428 on-base percentage and a .494 slugging percentage.
Many scouts who watched Polanco believe he is ready for the major leagues. So development time and economic considerations aside, the Pirates owe it to themselves to put the best lineup on the field — and that includes Polanco.
Congratulations to Pirates manager Clint Hurdle for winning the Dapper Dan Sportsmen of the Year award. No Pittsburgh sports figure had a better 2013, even Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen, who was the National League’s Most Valuable Player this year after winning the Dapper Dan in 2012.
To put the accomplishments of McCutchen and Hurdle into perspective, it marks the first time Pirates had won back-to-back Dapper Dans since Dave Parker in 1978 and Willie Stargell in 1979.