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Four-time All-Star Corbin Burnes is on the move for the second consecutive offseason after reaching a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Per The New York Post’s Jon Heyman, Burnes will sign a six-year, $210 million contract with the Diamondbacks in free agency. Heyman also reported the contract features an opt-out after two years
Burnes spent the 2024 season with the Baltimore Orioles after being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers shortly before the start of spring training.
The Orioles were in desperate need of a frontline starter who could provide pitching support for their wealth of position-player talent.
Burnes more than lived up to his end of the bargain in Baltimore. He ranked seventh in the AL with 3.7 FanGraphs wins above replacement after posting a 2.92 ERA with 181 strikeouts over 194.1 innings in 32 starts.
Last season marked the fourth consecutive year that Burnes was named to the All-Star team. He was the starting pitcher for the AL in the Midsummer Classic, opposite Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes for the NL.
Burnes has also finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting in five consecutive years, including winning the award in 2021 with the Brewers.
If there is a potential concern going forward, other than the usual injury risks that come with being an MLB pitcher, Burnes’ strikeout rates have gone down in each of the past four seasons.
After a career-high 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings during the shortened 2020 season, Burnes’ rates have gone to 12.6 to 10.8 to 9.3 to 8.4. He started at such a high level that even his worst rate during this stretch is very good.
This isn’t to say there’s any indication Burnes’ stuff is diminishing. He ranked in the 80th percentile or better in average exit velocity, chase percentage, walk percentage, hard-hit percentage and groundball percentage last season.
At just 30 years old, Burnes should have several more years in his prime. The Diamondbacks land the best free-agent starting pitcher on the market, someone who can more than hold his own in Game 1 of a playoff series.
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