JEFF BLAIR Negotiations haven't started, but both sides accept it will take a minimum of $15-million (all currency U.S.) a year to keep pitcher A.J. Burnett with the Toronto Blue Jays. "We will make him a competitive offer," Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said last night. "But it's his call. If he leaves here, it's going to be because he wants to." Life with Burnett hasn't always been easy. He's been hurt, at times with injuries that have defied easy medical diagnosis. He's shown up in spring training missing most of the nail on his forefinger of his pitching hand. He's jumped into the middle of mascot races while he was on the disabled list. He's tipped his cap to a booing crowd as he left the Rogers Centre field. He's been maddeningly mercurial. But on the eve of what could be his last start as a Jay, Burnett said he felt "this is kind of where I grew into myself." Asked about the significance of tonight's start at home against the New York Yankees, he smiled and said: "I'm trying not to think about that." Burnett's agent, Darek Brauneckerv, was in Toronto yesterday, and when asked if he was here to begin negotiations, said coyly, "Not negotiations, per se." But know this, there has already been some nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Burnett can opt out of the final two years of his contract, leaving $12-million a year on the table. And Ricciardi says the Jays won't get into a bidding war if Burnett doesn't re-sign before he declares free agency — which he can do during a two-week period after the conclusion of the World Series. The Blue Jays talk bravely about a 2009 rotation without Burnett or Shaun Marcum (elbow) or, for a few weeks at least, Dustin McGowan (shoulder), but it's false bravado. They can be bullish all they want on the latest reincarnation of Jesse Litsch, or talk about David Purcey and top minor-league pitcher Brett Cecil as candidates for the rotation. Maybe Casey Janssen, too. Globe and Mail
