Burnett era ends bitterly for Bucs
In October, then-Pirates starting pitcher A.J. Burnett told Colin Dunlap of 93.7 The Fan that he would be back with the Pittsburgh Pirates or he’d retire. Last week, Burnett broke that promise when he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.
“My decision is not playing for another team, it’s whether or not I’m going to play period,” said Burnett in the interview. “That decision is going to be based on my family.”
Despite the Pirates front office playing hardball with Burnett for much of the offseason, a tactic I might add that was detrimental to the team’s success over the recently broken 20-year losing streak, I ultimately blame Burnett. My message to Pirate fans is this: if Burnett starts at PNC Park in Philadelphia’s July 4-6 series in Pittsburgh, boo him.
I can understand why Pirates fans would disagree with me, while proudly wearing their “Free Shirt Friday” Burnett t-shirts from last season. I can’t disagree that Burnett was instrumental to the team’s uprising.
When Burnett came to Pittsburgh in a trade from the New York Yankees before the 2012 season, he went against the grain and changed the perception that Pittsburgh was a city where players’ careers go to die. Unlike the long list of free agent flops, which includes the likes of Lyle Overbay, Aki Iwamura and Matt Morris, Burnett embraced the fans and flourished as the face of a small-market team.
“The city took me in, they took me in more than any team in any city has in my whole career, before I even got here, and that was special to me,” said Burnett in the interview with Dunlap. “Without a doubt, I’d love to be a Pittsburgh Pirate.”
When Burnett was 13-3 in July of 2012 and the Pirates were leading the National League Central Division, the teenagers, who had never seen winning baseball, were joining the ones who could recall seeing Roberto Clemente, Kent Tekulve, Willie Stargell and even Barry Bonds in a Pirates uniform. The claim that Pittsburgh wasn’t a baseball town was slowly on its way of fading out.
Burnett brought a demeanor personified by the famous “sit the (expletive) down” strikeout that Pittsburgh was no longer a team that other major league ball clubs could beat up on. But at the same time, viewers on television could constantly see him mentoring younger starter Jeff Locke. He wasn’t the same cancer in the clubhouse that he was in New York.
But at the same time, Burnett was still an intimidating interview. My fellow peers of the Department of Communication, who were privileged to have the opportunity to have internships with sports media outlets in Pittsburgh this past summer, all echoed the same complaints that Burnett was not the easiest to talk to.
Although manager Clint Hurdle won the 2013 NL Manager of the Year award, fans of the Pirates know Burnett had trouble adhering to his authority when facing a substitution. While the fallout from Hurdle’s decision of not starting Burnett for Game 5 of the NLDS, to some, may have been Burnett’s final straw with Pittsburgh, I believe it was Burnett’s inability to deal with a franchise that wasn’t going to pay him what he expected.
At 37-years old and following his memorable seven-run shelling in just two innings of Game 1 against the Cardinals in the NLDS, I understand why Pittsburgh did not decide to extend him the $14.1 million qualifying offer. If fans recall, the Yankees paid $20 million of Burnett’s $33 million contract over the past two seasons.
But again, wasn’t this a decision about family, not money?
If Burnett wanted to be perceived in the same light as his Steeler counterpart Ben Roethlisberger and take a hometown discount after making over $100 million in his career with the Marlins, Blue Jays and Yankees, he would’ve taken the $10-plus million offer from the Pirates and stayed in Pittsburgh.
While recent reports have stated Philadelphia is just an hour and a half away from his family’s residence in Maryland, he told Dunlap that he enjoyed living in the Mars-Cranberry area and his family liked the area as well.
Again, if his decision to join the Phillies was truly about family and not about money, what was really the difference.
When asked about his promise to return to Pittsburgh or retire, Burnett told the media: “At that point, at that time, that’s where I was at. You know, it was a long year, a great year, it was a fun year. But when I said that, and at that time, that’s where I was, with my family and my thoughts. I did not stick to that, obviously.”
To put it in simplest terms, much to the chagrin of Pirates fans, Burnett changed his mind. As someone who has recently acquired Bucco Fever over the past three years, I expected this move out of Todd Graham, not A.J. Burnett.
Because of his “business decision,” a term that is becoming so commonplace in sports these days because of the free agency frenzy, I think Pirates fans should feel a little betrayed and therefore boo Burnett when he comes back to Pittsburgh.
Come October, fans and the front office are going to look back and be glad the Pirates didn’t overspend for A.J. Burnett, so they can focus on the future contracts of Pedro Alvarez, Starling Marte and Gerrit Cole.
I hope.