From David Waldstein in The New York Times, the latest news about the city's second-biggest sports story:
The Yankees continued to engage in trade talks regarding A.J. Burnett on Wednesday, and according to one baseball official, it is even more likely now that Burnett will be traded. Until Wednesday, the same official said it was possible there would be no trade, but now it appears a deal will get done, and most likely before pitchers and catchers report on Saturday.
Okay, nothing there of real note. Burnett's probably going to be traded, as everyone's been saying for the last couple of weeks. And the likely trade partner hasn't changed, either ... But hey, what's this?
"According to the official, there are now two teams involved in talks with the Yankees: the Pirates and" ... wait for it ... "an unidentified team."
There it is! THE MYSTERY TEAM. Yay!!!!
Of course, it's the Times so they can't just say it's a MYSTERY TEAM. Because that sort of sounds like Mystery Machine, and you just can't have the Mystery Machine running around inside the Times, leaving skid marks and Scooby Snacks in its wake. That just wouldn't do, at all. So instead the team is unidentified. /boring
But we've got a MYSTERY TEAM here, friends. Which makes this little drama about three times more interesting than it was yesterday. Yesterday, it seemed we already knew the ending, and were just sitting through a little Act 2 flavor involving a few million bucks and a couple of players nobody's ever heard of.
All that's changed now. Now we might actually be surprised at some point in the next 48 hours. If you're pregnant, you probably already know if you're having a boy baby or a girl baby because by God you just couldn't help yourself could you. But by God you don't know which uniform A.J. Burnett will be wearing in spring training next week.
And that is a beautiful thing.