Sources: Yankees and Pirates hope to take their proposed Burnett deal to the Commissioner later today, for approval.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) February 17, 2012
It looks like this ridiculous saga might finally be coming to a close with the resolution that we’ve all been expecting for a week and a half now.
The reason the deal has to go to Selig’s office is that the Yankees are, of course, going to be eating a large amount of Burnett’s salary. The latest report from Jon Heyman has it at about $20 million of the $33 million total, with the Pirates paying $13 million and sending the Yankees two “non-roster” prospects. There’s been a lot of consternation over who these prospects will be and there’s not really any indication yet. Some of the reporting from New York has indicated that they’ll be “B-level prospects,” which has caused a freakout because if you’re used to regular prospect grading, Starling Marte is a “B-level prospect.” I fully anticipate that the language is to indicate a second-tier prospect, and that we’re unlikely to see anyone that would be considered one of the Pirates’ top 20 prospects to go anywhere.
Having no inside information here and just playing a guessing game, I’d guess that one of the two prospects will be Carlos Paulino or Ramon Cabrera, because the Pirates currently have three Double-A catchers on the assumption that Tony Sanchez starts the season in Altoona, and logistically that’s just too many catchers. The second player will probably be a pitcher in the Nate Baker/Victor Black range of pitching prospects, again, because the Pirates have so many pitchers in the lower parts of the minors and need to free up space.
I realize that we as fans all wanted the Pirates to get Burnett for zero prospect cost, but the truth is that they do have a few logjams of similar players in the low minors. Using this deal to alleviate that kind of situation makes sense, if the Yankees are insisting on getting some kind of player return for Burnett.
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