Arizona signs Corbin Burnes for 6 years, $210 million, sources

The Diamondbacks landed perhaps the best pitcher on the market, reaching an agreement with right-hander Corbin Burnes, sources confirmed to AM850.

Right-hander Corbin Burnes and the Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to a six-year, $210 million contract, sources told AM850 on Friday, a surprising year-end signing that sends the best player left to free agency. to a team that had not been linked to him all winter.

Burnes, 30, is a former Cy Young Award winner who had spent most of the winter looking for a landing spot as free agent pitchers around the world landed high-value long-term guarantees. Burnes’ preference was to play on the West Coast, but he listened to all teams in hopes that an equally large offer would materialize.

In Arizona, he found an unlikely match. The Diamondbacks, who already have a strong rotation that includes Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery, will add the best player on the market to it, pending a physical exam.

The deal, which was first reported by the New York Post, includes a buyout option after the second season.

Nine years after signing right-hander Zack Greinke to a contract nearly identical to Burnes’, Arizona is again trying to build a roster to compete in a National League West division still dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Diamondbacks are the last team to beat the Dodgers in the postseason, they did so during their run to the 2023 World Series, something they will try to replicate in the most difficult division in baseball.

Since 2020, when Burnes permanently joined the Milwaukee Brewers’ rotation, he ranks third in the Major Leagues in innings pitched (816.2), second in ERA among those with at least 500 innings (2.88), second in strikeouts (946 ), sixth in home runs per nine innings (0.8) and in the top five in FanGraphs WAR (second with 21.7) and Baseball-Reference WAR (fourth with 18.6).

Baltimore acquired Burnes in a trade last season, and he led the Orioles’ rotation, posting a 2.92 ERA in 194.1 innings, his third consecutive 190+ season. Burnes’ strikeout rate dropped to 8.4 per nine innings, and although he had a troubled August, he posted a 1.20 ERA in five starts in September and then held the Kansas City Royals to one run in a playoff start of eight entries.

Although Burnes’ deal falls short of the full value of Max Fried’s eight-year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees this winter, it puts him in rare company among starters who received at least $35 million per year on a contract. more than six years, joining Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg.