Pavano to Yankees: “Be careful with long-term, high-dollar contracts for generally-unproven, injury-prone free agent pitchers

NEW YORK — In the wake of the New York Yankees closing on a long-term deal with A.J. Burnett, the team heard from an old friend with a word of warning.

The warning came in the form of an email from Pavano, whose four-year, $40 million deal with the Yankees recently came to an unceremonious close.

The email read as follows:

Hank,

Carl here. (Pavano)

Saw you’re about to sign Burnett. Just be careful with deals like that. You just got to be real careful. Burnett could be awesome, sure, but you have to really take care to make sure that you don’t get a lemon. Sometimes you’ll find a guy who puts together a great year or two, and you’ll give him a ton of money, and then you’ll end up spending a bunch of years wishing he wasn’t hurt all the time. Just be careful.

Btw, if you need a fifth starter, I’m around.

XOXO, CP.

Pavano indicated that he had sent out the email as a friend.

“Hank and I went through a lot together over the past four years, and I consider him a friend,” Pavano said. “We made a lot of money together, we had some fun. Well, I had fun, and I made a lot of money, but whatever.”

Pavano said of all people in this country, he’s uniquely suited to speak out about the dangers of the Yankees signing a right-hander with a questionable past and the high potential for injury.

“It’s very hard to sign good contracts in this day and age in baseball,” Pavano said. “You just can’t be too careful. Look, my heart beats for the Yankees, and it always will, and I would never ever want to see anything bad happen to them. I’d hate to see them deal with even one day, even one hour of trouble. So that’s why I just really want them to be careful with A.J. That’s all.”

Pavano indicated that he, himself, is feeling quite healthy these days, and is ready for whatever comes to him this year, and that he’d definitely be willing to sign for the same amount he made on his last contract, or even slightly less.

“I’d probably take a contrct for about $38 or $39 million,” Pavano said. “I just really want to play ball.”

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!