Corbin Burnes signs monster contract with the Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks made baseball headlines on Saturday with the signing of Corbin Burnes of Bakersfield, California to a six-year deal worth $210 million. According to Rogers Sportsnet, this is the largest contract in Diamondbacks franchise history. It is interesting that he chose the Diamondbacks when he was offered bigger contracts from the Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants. There is a belief according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, that Burnes chose the Diamondbacks because the state of Arizona has lower taxes at this time than the state of California and the Canadian province of Ontario.

Third Major League Baseball team

Burnes has previously pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles. He was with the Brewers for six seasons from 2018 to 2023, and the Orioles for one season in 2024.

2024 MLB regular season

In 32 games, Burnes won a career high 15 games with nine losses and an earned run average of 2.92. During 194 1/3 innings pitched, he gave up 165 hits, 63 earned runs, 22 home runs and 48 walks, to go along with 181 strikeouts, 22 quality starts and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.10.

The 22 quality starts were tied for the most in the American League and the second most in Major League Baseball. The MLB leader in quality starts was Philadelphia Phillies’s right-hander Zack Wheeler of Smyrna, Georgia with 26. The pitchers Burnes was tied with were Seattle Mariners’s righthander Lucas Gilbert of Winter Park, Florida, Kansas City Royals righthander Seth Lugo of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Detroit Tigers Cy Young winning southpaw Tarik Skubal of Hayward, California.

Also this past year, Burnes reached double digits in strikeouts twice against American League West Division opponents. He had 11 strikeouts in an 11-3 Orioles win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on March 28 and 11 strikeouts again in a 6-3 Orioles win over the Seattle Mariners on May 19,

Accolades

Burnes has been an All-Star the last four seasons (2021 to 2023 with Milwaukee and 2024 with Baltimore), led the National League with a 2.43 earned run average in 2021, won the 2021 National League Cy Young Award in 2021, led the National League with 243 strikeouts in 2022, and led the National League with a 1.07 WHIP in 2023.