SPORTSNET.CA
General manager J.P. Ricciardi told Sportsnet on Saturday that the Blue Jays have held preliminary contract talks with pitcher A.J. Burnett, but denied a report that he plans to offer Burnett a two-year, $30-million extension to try and keep the right-hander in Toronto.
“We had a meeting with his agent, just really a cordial get together and just talk about general things about the club and about A.J.,” Ricciardi told Sportsnet before Toronto’s game at Baltimore. “Nothing was mentioned in the way of money, so that is not true.”
The Toronto Star reported Saturday that the Blue Jays were preparing an extenstion for Burnett, who can opt out of the final two years of his current deal 10 days after the World Series.
Told of the reported offer before Friday’s game against the Orioles, Burnett called it “nice.”
“That’s more than I thought they would come up with,” Burnett told the Star. “Here, at least.”
Ricciardi said neither Burnett, nor his agent, have disclosed their intentions.
“Not really, outside the fact that they like it here,” Ricciardi said. “But there has been no direction from them either way. We plan on talking to them at some point in the near future and I think at that point more will come out.”
Burnett won a career-high 18 games for Toronto this season, finishing 18-10 with a 4.07 ERA. His departure, coupled with right-hander Shaun Marcum’s shoulder injury, would leave two major holes to fill in the 2009 starting rotation.
“We want to be a playoff team, that’s our number one thing,” Ricciardi said. “I think that’s the last thing left for us to do here is to be a playoff club. I think we’re proud of what we did on the field but we want to be in the playoffs. I think that’s the one thing that drives us all. We’re happy we have 85 wins, and maybe a few more, but being a playoff club is what we want to do.”
