Baltimore Orioles land ace in trade for former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes
The Baltimore Orioles finally brought in a proven frontline pitcher to match all that young hitting talent.
The Orioles acquired All-Star right-hander Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night. Baltimore sent left-hander DL Hall, infield prospect Joey Ortiz and a competitive balance draft pick to Milwaukee in the deal for the 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner.
It’s a blockbuster move for the Orioles, who had a quiet offseason but remained hopeful of adding more pitching as they prepare to defend their AL East championship.
Baltimore has a great core of young players – especially position players – but hasn’t been particularly aggressive in signing free agents or making trades. That changed on Thursday.
Even after a 101-win season last year, there were questions about whether the Orioles could sustain a true American League juggernaut given their low payroll. Then on Wednesday, the team announced that Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein had agreed to buy the Orioles and become their new controlling owner, a move that could allow the franchise to spend more in the future.
The next day, the Orioles traded for Burnes, who turned 29 in October. Last year he went 10-8 with a 3.39 ERA. He had an ERA under 3.00 the previous three seasons, including going 11-5 with a 2.43 ERA in 2021.
He can become a free agent at the end of next season, and that was a factor in this deal.
“Anytime you trade someone like Corbin, it’s always a tough decision,” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said. “I think the overarching theme here is that we’re excited about the players we’re getting back. And the reality of our situation is that we still had a year left with Corbin. I think Corbin had been pretty public about how this was going to be his last year as a brewer.
Burnes joins a Baltimore rotation that was good enough to win a division title last season but remained more of a question mark than some other areas on the roster. Kyle Bradish and rookie Grayson Rodriguez pitched well in 2023, and now Burnes is emerging as someone who can clearly be a top prospect if he plays to his potential.
Baltimore is sending the 25-year-old Hall — a first-round pick in 2017 — to the Brewers after going 3-0 with a 3.26 ERA last season. The 25-year-old Ortiz is ranked as baseball’s No. 63 prospect by MLB Pipeline. He hit .321 at Triple-A last year and appeared in 15 games for the Orioles.
“I wouldn’t consider this any kind of rebuilding at all,” Arnold said. “This is something that we think will help us now and in the future.”
The competitive balance draft pick currently ranks 34th overall.
Ortiz’s path to playing time has been complicated in Baltimore, as the Orioles also have Gunnar Henderson, last year’s AL Rookie of the Year, on the left side of their infield. And they can expect to add shortstop Jackson Holliday — the highest-ranked player in baseball — in the near future.
Henderson and catcher Adley Rutschman were two top players who already made it to Baltimore and helped the Orioles rise to the top of their division – but while the organization appears to have plenty of position players, the pitching situation was more uncertain.
Milwaukee won the NL Central by nine games last year, but the trade of Burnes and the decision not to tender Brandon Woodruff, who remains a free agent, means the Brewers will enter the season without the two cornerstones of their rotation who helped them enjoy the franchise’s greatest sustained success.
Woodruff injured his shoulder shortly before the start of the 2023 playoffs, and surgery could cause him to miss the entire 2024 season.
This departure means Freddy Peralta will enter the season as Milwaukee’s top starting pitcher. Peralta, a 2021 All-Star, went 12-10 with a 3.86 ERA and 210 strikeouts in 165 and two-thirds innings last season.
The Brewers also bring back Wade Miley and Colin Rea. They hope to get left-hander Aaron Ashby back after he missed the entire 2023 season with a shoulder injury.
Robert Gasser, one of the players acquired in the 2022 trade that sent star closer Josh Hader to San Diego, could be ready to compete for a spot in the rotation after going 9-1 last season with a ERA of 3.79 for Triple-A Nashville.