Have the Blue Jays given up on would-be ace A.J. Burnett?
After a season that saw Burnett sidelined for a couple months with injury and called out by his GM for racing with a guy in a chili pepper costume, it seemed that the Jays might want to cut their losses by cutting ties with the guy they'd hoped would form a tough one-two punch with Roy Halladay.
Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi has gone on record saying that the Jays aren't actively shopping Burnett. But they wouldn't shy away from the idea, either.
"We like having A.J. here," Ricciardi told ESPN.com. "He gives us a good opportunity to win in 2008, and that's our main objective right now. But we're open-minded. If someone blew us away, we'd be foolish not to listen. If someone came to us tomorrow and said, 'We'll give you this, this and this for him,' we'd be foolish not to look at it."
So the Jays' options are banking on winning it all with the Halladay-Burnett combo next season or risk losing Burnett, who can opt out of his contract after 2008, to free agency? Here's betting A.J.'s starting for some other team come next April.
