12:15pm: The Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate announced the acquisition of Burnett from Minnesota in exchange for cash considerations.
11:51am: The Nationals have agreed to a deal to acquire left-hander Sean Burnett from the Twins, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). The veteran southpaw had been pitching for the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate prior to the trade. Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweets that it’s not clear what the return will be, but it doesn’t sound like the Nats gave up a player, which would indicate that some presumably nominal cash considerations are going back to the Twins.
Burnett, 34 next month, has split the season between the Triple-A affiliates of the Dodgers, Braves and Twins, working to a 1.91 ERA with 6.0 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 in 42 1/3 innings. Left-handers, in particular, have mustered a pitiful .164/.203/.236 batting line against Burnett in Triple-A this season.
Cotillo adds that Burnett is bound for Triple-A with the Nats as well, so he won’t have his contract selected to the big league roster right away. However, the Nationals currently have Oliver Perez as the lone southpaw in their bullpen, and he hasn’t been pitching well as of late, so it’s certainly quite plausible that Burnett could return to the Nationals’ big league roster, where he spent parts of four seasons from 2009-12. During that stretch, Burnett logged an outstanding 2.81 ERA in 201 2/3 innings of relief.