A. J. Burnett’s message is exactly what young Pirates pitchers needed to hear

More than a decade after he last walked off the mound at PNC Park, A.J. Burnett walked back into Pittsburgh Pirates spring training with the same unmistakable edge — just a little less velocity and a lot more perspective.

Burnett has been invited to camp by Pirates manager Don Kelly to work with the team's young pitching staff, but he insists he’s not there to overhaul mechanics or stamp his name on a promising young prospect. He’s there to make someone better.

But if you listen closely, Burnett’s real value this week won’t be in pitch grips or sequencing tips. It’ll be in the reminder of what winning in Pittsburgh actually means.

“If you win in Pittsburgh," Burnett told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "you’re not gonna be forgotten.”

That’s not nostalgia talking. That’s fact. Burnett pitched just three of his 17 Major League seasons for the Pirates. He didn’t win a Cy Young there. He won one Wild Card game in 2013 and helped snap a 20-year postseason drought — and he’s still treated like royalty in the Steel City.

Why?

Because he understood the assignment.

Pittsburgh isn’t a market where you blend into the background. It’s not a place where a good season gets lost in the churn of October expectations. It's a city that craves it, feels it, and shows up for it.

Burnett said it plainly: some cities deserve it a little more because they feel it a little deeper. When the Pirates won in 2013, it wasn’t just a baseball story. It was civic catharsis. Burnett and his teammates felt that energy, and they used it as fuel.

Young arms in this year's camp — whether it’s established rotation pieces or guys trying to claw their way onto the roster — should be paying attention because Burnett isn’t selling hype. He’s selling permanence. Win here, and you matter forever.

A.J. Burnett offers unique perspective to Pirates pitchers on what it means to win in Pittsburgh

Burnett also nailed something else about Pittsburgh that should resonate with this pitching staff:

“It’s a place where they respect the way you go about your business between the white lines and just compete.”

Pittsburgh is different, and that's the point. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to throw triple digits. You don’t have to be an All-Star. But you better compete.

Just ask Burnett, whose Pittsburgh legacy was born not from his All-Star nod in 2015, but from his glare on the mound, the refusal to back down and the now-legendary Hanley Ramirez moment that birthed “STFD” and eventually ended up tattooed across his knuckles.

This current Pirates staff doesn’t need a savior. It needs edge. It needs ownership. It needs to understand what kind of imprint they can leave. Burnett is living proof that three years can echo for decades in this city.

In Pittsburgh, winning is about blue-collar respect. It’s about knowing that if you empty the tank every fifth day, the city won’t forget it. Burnett didn’t pitch here long, but he pitched like it mattered — and if the Pirates’ young pitchers absorb even half of that message this spring, they'll go a long way toward etching their names in the city's history books.