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Corbin Burnes reveals decision to depart Baltimore had nothing to do with money
Corbin Burnes reveals decision to depart Baltimore had nothing to do with money
Less than a year after getting traded to the Baltimore Orioles, starting pitcher Corbin Burnes flocked out west in free agency to sign a six-year, $210 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
During Arizona’s three-game set against his former club, Burnes opened up about the negotiations between the two sides, revealing his decision to leave had nothing to do with money.
“I don’t think the dollar amount was an issue because the dollars here (in Arizona) were more than what they were there (in Baltimore) in the offers. I just don’t think that we necessarily matched up on the years that it was gonna take to kind of get to a dollar amount for me to stay there,” he said, according to Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun.
“Not to say they wouldn’t have jumped up at the end if things got a little more serious. But just kind of even going back and forth a couple times with them, they were kind of set on those years,” he added, according to Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner.
Through two starts, the 2021 NL CY Young Award winner sports a 5.79 ERA across 9.1 innings with seven strikeouts and a 6.79 FIP.
Multiple insiders did point out upon signing with Arizona that tax rates did factor into his decision–specific to San Francisco and Toronto, two other players in the Burnes sweepstakes last winter. According to MASN’s Roch Kubatko, the Orioles’ final offer to Burnes was four years for $180 million. In that case, he would have re-entered free agency after his age-33 season, where they may not have been a huge market for him, depending on his performance.
It’s understandable why he wanted the additional year or two. His signing did not come long after the New York Yankees shelled out $218 million to sign southpaw Max Fried to the most expensive deal for a lefty in the sport’s history.
It’s noteworthy that his strikeout rate and K-BB% declined in each of his previous four seasons. He’s not missing as many bats as he was once was with his velocity also on a downward trend. I’ll be fascinated to see how he continues to adapt. He added a sweeper to throw to right-handed batters last year and still has four pitches (curve, slider, changeup, sinker) that he can throw outside of his cutter.
