Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher A.J. Burnett had previously announced that this season would be his last in the Majors. Unfortunately for Burnett and the Pirates, it's possible that career could end sooner than originally anticipated. The starter was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Friday after yielding seven earned runs and 10 hits in 4.1 innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday. 

Burnett indicated that he has been dealing with elbow discomfort for years now—discomfert that became increasingly more noticeable in his last start. 

“It is difficult. I’m prepared for both…if I just need some rest or something more. In my mind, surgery is not an option. I’d built up some pain tolerance. It comes and goes, part of doing this 16 years. You figure out what you can and can’t do,” Burnett said, via MLB.com. “It was just really bad on everything the other night. I never got loose, never got comfortable. We’ll find out tomorrow, when they look at it. I don’t expect it to go away, don’t expect it to get better.”

This all comes after a first half of the season that saw Burnett put up a 7-3 record with a 2.11 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. He had also tallied nearly eight strikeouts per nine innings during that span. Since the All-Star Break, Burnett boasts a 1-2 record with a 10.13 ERA and 2.19 WHIP in three starts. It's obvios that his elbow discomfort played a role here. 

If Burnett's career is indeed over, and we will find this out on Monday, it ends an extensive 17-year-professional career that saw him win double-digit games 11 times and throw 200-plus innings six times. 

Burnett entered Sunday's action as the 30th-ranked starter in the fantasy world, ahead of the likes of Cole Hamels and Jon Lester. The impact of his season potentially coming to an end will definitely be felt there. You will likely have to scrape the waiver wire in order to find a replacement. More than that, Burnett had acted as an under-the-radar DFS stud.