Should A.J. Burnett decide to test the open market, his career as a Blue Jay will be remembered as a turbulent one.
Let's go directly to the numbers, if we are to make sense of the three mercurial seasons of A.J. Burnett as a Toronto Blue Jay:
W-L: 38-26
ERA: 3.94
STARTS: 80
IP / STARTS: 6.5
Ks / 9 IP: 9.04
OPP AVG: .242
He arrived to much fan fare back in the winter of 2005-06 when he first signed a five-year, $55-million deal, quite unexpectedly if memory serves. Included in the language of that generous deal was on opt-out clause after the third year. The signing came eight days after the Jays had inked former Baltimore Orioles closer B.J. Ryan to a five-year, $47-million contract. It appeared, at the time, that the Blue Jays were finally serious about contending. Now they had a wingman for Roy Halladay atop the rotation and a stud closer to seal the deal in the ninth.
Everyone was apprised of his past health issues, so people raised their collective eyebrows when Burnett started his first season in Blue Jays' black on the disabled list with right elbow soreness, the same elbow that had landed him on the DL three times over the 2003-04 seasons and had barked a little bit during his final season with the Florida Marlins in '05.
His mid-April debut with the Jays lasted all of two starts before it was onto the 60-day DL to settle this problem down. He returned in late June and pitched the rest of the season, with everyone around the team cautiously optimistic the problems were behind him. In 2006 he would win 10 games.
In year two, a sore shoulder saw him sidelined between June 13th and August 12th, save for a start on June 28th. All told, he won 10 more games, giving him the 20 he was brought here to win, albeit over two seasons.
Although an off-season mishap left him with a mangled nail on the index finger of his pitching hand when he first arrived in Dunedin in February, Burnett was finally healthy during the John Gibbons portion of the 2008 campaign. His season didn't appear to be turning into much over the first two and a half months. It was after his start on June 19th at Milwaukee -- the final game under manager Gibbons -- where he gave up eight runs over five innings on four walks and a pair of home runs, that I started to think that his opt-out clause might be a blessing. Starters with an ERA hovering around five and a half 15 starts into the season shouldn't be making the dough that A.J. was. Especially after he mocked the crowd when they jeered him off the field following a 10-hit, eight-run outing in just 4 1/3 innings against the worst team in the A.L. East less than two weeks earlier.
But June 20th proved to be the turning point to his season and brief career with the Jays. He was never more consistent or better than after Cito Gaston returned to the seat beside the bat rack and steadied this uneven team. It was almost like William Shatner returning to the bridge of the Enterprise. With the offence finally clicking, Burnett came to the realization that he didn't have to be perfect, just good enough. It sure seemed to me from my perch behind home plate, that the night of his first start under Cito -- and the manager's first home game -- was the absolute turning point to what had sadly become a lost season. On that Tuesday, June 24th night, Burnett set down the first three Cincinnati hitters quite easily before the new hitting attack put a six-spot on the board in the first and five more in the second. The beneficiary, of course, was Burnett, who before that start had received 4.43 runs of support over his first 16 appearances. Normally that's plenty of runs except Burnett's 5.42 ERA took care of that, which is why he had a 6-7 record. From that point in the season forward, Burnett was arguably the best pitcher in the American League. With Cito as his manager, he made 19 starts, going 12-3, with an ERA of 3.12 while averaging almost 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. It turned out to be his best stretch of starts of as a Blue Jay.
And Cito, as old school as they come, afforded A.J. all the accolades as he allowed him to warm up to start the ninth inning on Wednesday and then pulled him to receive one of the loudest ovations this side of Joe Carter's walk-off to win the 1993 World Series. It also included a curtain call, a rarity at the Rogers Centre. Following that, before he left for the showers and post-game buffet, we saw Cito and Roy Halladay lean in and whisper in his ear. What was said, only those gentlemen know … and should stay that way.
Nobody turned jeers into cheers quite like Burnett did in the history of this franchise, not even Roger Clemens during his two Cy Young rent-a-seasons that have now been irreparably tainted by his alleged performance-enhancing drug abuse.
That's what I'll remember of A.J.'s time in Toronto. That, and his unbelievable stuff, which everybody raved about in the first place.
J.P. Ricciardi has stated for the record that the Blue Jays will make a competitive offer to Burnett during the timeframe where the Jays have exclusive negotiating rights before he goes back on the open market. Whether that will be good enough remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: During his time as a Blue Jay, he inspired a wide range of emotions from the fan base and media.
And if he moves on to greener pastures, so be it. That was his right. We should all be so lucky.
