The Yankees have sent 35-year old righty starting pitcher A.J. Burnett and $20 million bucks to the Pittsburgh Pirates for 25-year old righty reliever Diego Moreno and 20-year old lefty swinging outfielder Exicardo Cayones. Burnett pitched in 33 games (32 starts) for the Yankees last year and he was 11-11 with a 5.15 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP. He pitched in 99 games (98 starts) in his three years with the Yankees and he was 34-35 with a 4.79 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. Burnett just couldn’t cut it in the pressure cooker with the New York Yankees.

Diego Moreno pitched in 41 games (0 starts) in A+AA-ball last year and he was 2-4 with 5 saves, a 3.63 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. He has now pitched in 116 games (6 starts) in his first five years in the minors and he is 11-19 with 15 saves, a 2.41 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP. Exicardo Cayones played in 38 games in Rookie+A-ball last year for the Pirates and he was 26 for 114 (.228 avg, .658 OPS) with 14 runs scored, 0 homers, 12 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He has now played in 149 games in his first three years in the minors and he is 128 for 471 (.272 avg, .752 OPS) with 77 runs scored, 1 homer, 68 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Neither of these guys project to be anything more than fringe prospects.

The bottom line here is that the Yankees saved $13 million bucks by moving the underperforming Burnett to Pittsburgh, so it didn’t really matter what kind of prospects that they were getting back in the deal.