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A.J. Burnett Takes Reported $4M Pay Cut To Pitch For Pirates

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A few weeks ago, A.J. Burnett made a move that seemed a little bit confusing at the time. Burnett, 37, declined his $12.75 million player option with the Phillies in order to become a free agent.

The move seemed strange due to the fact that Burnett was not exactly coming off the most amazing season in his stint with the Phillies and garnering that kind of money on the open market would be next to impossible.

That proved true, but Burnett has a deal anyway that is probably connected more to comfort than it is to dollars and cents.

On Friday, Burnett signed a one-year deal to return to the Pittsburgh Pirates. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the deal will pay Burnett $8.5 million.

That deal means that Burnett will be leaving over $4 million on the table to leave the Phillies and return to a place where he experienced a greater level of success and that is more setup to compete in the short term, which is obviously appealing to Burnett who is on the tail end of his baseball career.

Burnett pitched in 34 games for the Phillies in his lone season with the team. He registered an 8-18 record with a 4.59 ERA.

His previous two seasons were spent with the Pirates and he was much more effective. Burnett earned 16-10 and 10-11 records in those two seasons and earned 3.51 and 3.30 ERAs respectively.

It appeared that Burnett was either going to return to his last stomping ground or call it a career after a rough 2014 season with the Phillies. Burnett came to his decision on Friday and will look to take another shot at success on the other side of the state.

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