2006 Toronto Blue Jays $2,200,000
2007 Toronto Blue Jays $13,200,000
2008 Toronto Blue Jays $13,200,000
2009 New York Yankees $16,500,000

Raf wrote:

For frame of reference;
Santana, Johan $ 18,876,139, New York Mets
Zambrano, Carlos $ 18,750,000, Chicago Cubs
Zito, Barry $ 18,500,000, San Francisco Giants
Burnett, A.J. $ 16,500,000, New York Yankees
Hudson, Tim $ 15,500,000, Atlanta Braves
Sabathia, CC $ 15,285,714, New York Yankees
Schmidt, Jason $ 15,217,401, Los Angeles Dodgers
Lowe, Derek $ 15,000,000, Atlanta Braves

Also, CC is on top of that list. I count huge bonus’ as part of their yearly pay, and that brought him to 23 IIRC.

@ Raf:
Imagine if we had Lowe for that price? Steve would have a field day.

For frame of reference;

Santana, Johan $ 18,876,139, New York Mets
Zambrano, Carlos $ 18,750,000, Chicago Cubs
Zito, Barry $ 18,500,000, San Francisco Giants
Burnett, A.J. $ 16,500,000, New York Yankees
Hudson, Tim $ 15,500,000, Atlanta Braves
Sabathia, CC $ 15,285,714, New York Yankees
Schmidt, Jason $ 15,217,401, Los Angeles Dodgers
Lowe, Derek $ 15,000,000, Atlanta Braves

What do I want from him? Another world championship, just as I want from everyone else on the team. No more and no less.

OldYanksFan wrote:

He’s a good #3 at #2 money.

Of course, the problem is, right now, on the Yankees, he’s being asked to be a #2 and he’s paid like a #1 for just about every other team in the bigs.

Oooooooooooooooooh Steve… shame on you! Burnett bashing are we? Such a simple target. And on the Thanksgiving Halliday too!

Nobody thought the Burnett contract was a great one.
Everyone feared injury.
Everyone thought 5 years was too long.

But….
We may have gotten the 2nd best SP on the market at the time. (And we also got the first.) Burnett may have been a necessary evil. 20% done, and so far it’s been OK. I’ll take it again next year with a bit of improvement. Keep the innings. Less walks please. Up the ERA+ to 110+.

He’s a good #3 at #2 money.

Oh; and nobody serious thought he’d be a 2nd Pavano.

His durability was questioned for that money and that length of contract, but he had started no fewer than 19 games in every season since 2004; Pavano didn’t have one season in his four years with the Yanks where he started more than 17, and in three of the four seasons he started 7 games or less.

In 2005 and 2008, Burnett started more games than Pavano did over his entire time with the Yankees.
———————————————————-
He won’t be as good as Halladay? Hmmm….he won’t be as good as the pitcher with the best track record as an ace in the league. There’s a shocking conclusion.

Game 2 of the World Series; biggest win of the whole post-season. The only game the Yankees played behind in the series the whole post-season.

Kept the Yankees from going to Philiadelphia down 2-0, which would have meant losing the World Series, in all likelihood.

The team didn’t hit, that game, either. He pitched without the lead until his last inning. It was a tight pitcher’s duel, a high-pressure situation and a high-pressure game.

But hey, if you can use A.J. Burnett to attack Cashman, go ahead and do it; never mind they don’t win anything this year without him, and there was nobody better on the market.