The relevant tweets:
Buster Olney says the Yankees are zeroing in on a deal with either the Pirates or a TEAM OF MYSTERY OOOOOOOOOOOH!
Jon Heyman says that there’s “a lot of optimism” that the deal will get done and the Pirates will end up paying $13 million of Burnett’s owed salary.
Jim Bowden says that the Yankees and Pirates are close to a deal but that the Yankees are weighing an offer from a MYSTERIOUS THIRD SUITOR OOHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Now you can all throw this back in my face if the Yankees trade Burnett somewhere other than Pittsburgh and I do realize that quite a few prominent free agents have signed with the equivalent of mystery suitors in the last two offseasons (Cliff Lee, Albert Pujols, and Yoenis Cespedes, to name a few), but I’m still inclined to think that most mystery-suitor talk is drummed up BS by one party to create a better offer when they’re not seeing what they want on the table. This AJ Burnett trade talk has literally been the only non-Cuban free agent thing anyone has talked about or reported on for almost ten days now. I find it awfully hard to believe that a mystery suitor would’ve snuck through the cracks for this long. It’s possible, sure, but it doesn’t strike me as terribly likely.
In any case, I think there’s a good chance this all gets resolved before pitchers and catchers report for both clubs on Saturday. Pitchers and catchers report on Saturday. That’s an awesome-sounding thing.
