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It's minutes to midnight for John Gibbons because the Rogers Centre feels the way it did during the dying days of Buck Martinez's tenure, with a baseball crisis on the verge of transforming itself into an issue of consumer confidence.
So there are more issues for the Toronto Blue Jays this morning besides A.J. Burnett's honest answer to an honest question about whether he'd accept a trade to the Chicago Cubs. The fact that Burnett's openness to a trade is a talking point now as opposed to closer to the trade deadline is less a contributing factor than it is an indicative one.
Burnett was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times Sunday as saying: “As of right now, I'm a Blue Jay and I'm going to pitch to the best of my ability as long as I'm part of this club. But if something were to happen and I'd have the opportunity to go to a place where baseball is breakfast, lunch and dinner, that would be awesome. Right now my focus is with this club, but if something like that were to happen, I'd accept it with open arms.”
Burnett then went on to list all his friends on the Cubs and admitted his fondness for players such as Ryan Dempster and said the possibility of joining the Cubs occurred to him on Friday before he started and won against them.
General manager J.P. Ricciardi, who gave Burnett a five-year, $55-million (U.S.) contract and agreed at the 11th hour of negotiations to add a clause that allowed Burnett to walk away from the deal two years early, would not comment on the report.
Club president Paul Godfrey hadn't read the story, but he had been told its details and said that if they were true, he would be “very disappointed,” noting, “The fact is, the contract that A.J. signed to pitch here is a very hefty one.” (The report was dismissed with a wave of the hand and a shrug by Gibbons. Meanwhile, a club source said that “at this time, no decision has been made” about the manager's future.)
Burnett sensed he'd created an issue, to the point where, according to Vernon Wells, the two spoke about the matter before the game.
Later, Burnett said he didn't care how the fans took the statement as long as they remembered the part where he stressed his focus was on pitching for the Blue Jays.
“Everything else is out of my control,” Burnett continued, adding: “Who would not want to play for the Cubs? Bottom line. But I'm pitching for this team and not for them and nobody else.
“Everybody's talking about me opting out and nobody's talking about me staying. There's a one hundred per cent chance of both.”
Wells all but rolled his eyes when asked whether Burnett's musings could be divisive. It's Bar Sports Philosophy 101: team “chemistry” can get muddled when a player rocks the boat.
Wells rubbished that notion. “I mean, he said he wouldn't mind playing for a first-place club and Chicago's a great city,” Wells said. “He knows his job is to pitch for us.”
Wells went on to say that everyone, including Burnett, could see this coming because of the opt-out clause. Wells also has one of those in his seven-year, $126-million (U.S.) contract, under which he can opt out after 2011. Burnett is, in Wells's words, “a big boy” who will have to handle these questions the rest of the year.
The Blue Jays are prepared to let Burnett walk if he wants to leave on the table the total of $24-million he would be owed for 2009 and 2010. They will not let a potential trade partner have a window to negotiate the clause out of existence.
A club trading for Burnett would need to know it's getting a “hired gun.” If things continue to spiral downward, the only question will be whether Burnett is being traded to add a bat for a stretch run or simply as a first step in a rebuilding process aimed at 2009 and beyond.
