A.J. Burnett to the Yankees

For five years and 82.5 million. That’s 16.5 million annually, or paying for 3.3 WAR (on a 4.84 mil/WAR scale). Eric covered the Yankees potential super-rotation yesterday, and it appears the Yankees dreams (and everyone else’s nightmare) is becoming a reality.

Kudos to Dave for nailing the years/money here, A.J. Burnett is a 3 WAR starter, and he’s being paid as one. This is a buyers market, and the Yankees are absolutely thriving in it. A lot can be said for spending money and a lot more should be said for Brian Cashman and the Yankees paying these free agents exactly what they’re worth. Of course, the Yankees are one of the few teams who can pay what they’re worth, but that might be a market inefficiency within itself.

What does this mean for the other American League East teams? Well, it pressures the Red Sox into signing Mark Teixeira, and the Rays to get a designated hitter. If we assume the Yankees can work out the kinks with Milwaukee and trade for Mike Cameron and place him in center, their lineup looks something like this:

CA Jorge Posada
1B Nick Swisher
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
SS Derek Jeter
LF Johnny Damon
CF Mike Cameron
RF Xavier Nady
DH Hideki Matsui

Marcels projects those nine players to be worth 82.2 offensive runs and seemingly decent defensively. If Cano and Swisher bounce back and the lineup stays relatively healthy, you’re looking at a good lineup, and if they splurge for Teixeira or Manny Ramirez (as a DH) things get really hectic for opposing pitchers. There’s still talk of Andy Pettitte returning, and if not him, possibly another starting pitcher, and that would indicate the Yankees still possess quite a bit of expendable cash.