The fact is, the salary dumping of AJ Burnett was the stupidist, cheapo move the Yankees made in the last decade, and it launched a period - we're not out of it yet - to be remembered for hubris, frustration, Kevin Youkilis, Vernon Wells, Chris Bootcheck and hitters marching back to the dugout with their bats over slumped shoulders - in the span of time that it took Boston to remake itself into a champion.

AJ Brunette

Before the Yankees signed AJ Burnett in 2009 - five years at $16.5 million - he was death to our lineup. Absolute death. Toronto had Roy Halliday and Burnett, and - frankly - I didn't know which I more feared. In four games, Burnett beat us three times, and usually pitched into the eighth. When we signed him, I knew we had a gamer. We all did. We'd seen firsthand what he could do.

OK, let's not rehash everything that happened in NYC. Whenever a sympathetic word about AJ Burnett is written, his critics converge like zombies on a fat lady. Yep, he had some bad starts.  Yep, there was that weird black eye that never got explained. And yep, he wasn't getting better. But Burnett pitched heroically in the 2009 World Series, and he was the guy who invented the walk-off pie-in-the-face, which galvanized the team. And his salary dump trade to Pittsburgh represented the first phase of the famous Hal Steinbrenner "$189 Million or Bust" austerity plan, which lasted for two years, two horrible years, to be long remembered as one of the great exercises in futility in modern Yankee history.

We traded Burnett for a bag of magic beans - Diego Moreno and Exicardo Cayones, if you're scoring at home. The Pirates received an ace. The Yankees, thinking they had a surplus of starters - all-star Michael Pineda had joined the team! - played cheapie. Burnett turned out to be the pitcher we desperately needed. And last year, when Joe Girardi was throwing out stems and seeds, the Pirates made the post-season - behind AJ Burnett.

OK, Burnett-bashers... thunder your indignation here: Play the favorite tune, that old song that never fails when a Yankee trade goes bad: He wouldna done it in the AL East! The fact is, Burnett's salary dump launched a period - we're not out of it yet - of nothingness. It's why we'll have Jacoby Ellsbury for seven years, Brian McCann for five, and no Robbie Cano. The post-AJ period will be remembered for hubris, frustration, Kevin Youkilis, Vernon Wells, Chris Bootcheck and hitters - my favorite is the Grandy Man - marching back to the dugout with bats over slumped shoulders - in the span of time that it took Boston to remake itself into a champion.

Well, now AJ Burnett is a free agent, and he says he wants to pitch one more season, and if not for the acid bath on the bridge behind us, he would be absolutely the one pitcher we should sign. He knows New York. He's a veteran. He won't cost a draft pick. He wants a one-year deal. Good grief, he's perfect.

But fughetabouttit. Ainta gonna happen.

Nope. If he doesn't sign with Pittsburgh, he might land in Toronto or Baltimore, and here is my prediction for 2014: He will be as tough on the Yankees this season as he was in 2008. But, hey, Burnett-bashers, this will give you a chance to dust off your old mantra one more time. Altogether now:

He wouldna done it in the AL East, he wouldna done it in the AL East, he wouldna etc. etc. blah-blah-blah. 

So we can cross our fingers that Masahiro Tanaka moves seamlessly into MLB. And that Manute Bol Sabathia's new whip body will return him to all-star form. And that we'll have the Ivan Nova of last September, not the Ivan Nova of last June. And yes - we can hope that Michael Pineda recovers from the worst injury a pitcher can have - a torn shoulder.

Nope, AJ wouldna done it in the AL East. Hey, who's got the walk-off pie?