Breaking: Orioles Ready to Bring Back Corbin Burnes With the Largest Contract in Franchise History
There’s no hard and fast time that the annual winter meetings conclude, but executives typically start flying home by Wednesday night, so it’s safe to say things are drawing to a close. There’s been some movement, starting with the late Sunday night Juan Soto signing.
In terms of the high-end pitching market, things have started to move a bit. Blake Snell signed with the Dodgers before Thanksgiving, but during the winter meetings, Max Fried signed with the Yankees and Garrett Crochet was traded to the Red Sox. A tier below, but Nathan Eovaldi signed a deal to return to the Rangers, too.
Remember that 23-year-old Roki Sasaki has been posted and that starters like Jack Flaherty and Sean Manaea remain free agents, but the top pitcher left is easily Corbin Burnes. The big right-hander has finished sixth, first, seventh, eighth and fifth, respectively, in Cy Young voting the last five seasons and has made at least 28 starts in each of the last four seasons.
Where might he land? Here are the five teams that make the most sense and have been rumored, even loosely, to be in the mix.
They had him last year and continuity is never a bad thing. This new ownership needs to flex its financial muscles at some point to show the fan base that this front office is a lot more than just building a strong farm system and then getting bounced without advancing in the playoffs. Doing what it takes to land Burnes over some large markets would be a beautiful start there.
The rotation needs a frontline starter, too. With Burnes at the top, Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodríguez look a lot better in the 2-3 spots with Dean Kremer and either Albert Suárez or a mulligan for Trevor Rogers coming next.
They’ve already missed their chance to deal from that substantial stack of prospects for Crochet, so it’s time to get out that wallet.
