The Baltimore Orioles needed an ace, and they got one Thursday night when they acquired Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers.
Milwaukee eventually trading Burnes before he walked in free agency has long been seen as inevitable, but the reality of it actually happening shakes up the MLB landscape in a big way.
The Brewers got prospects D.L. Hall and Joey Ortiz in the return, along with the 34th overall pick in the upcoming draft.
What this Means for the Orioles
Baltimore spent all of last season in desperate need of starting pitching help, and Burnes was actually a highly speculated trade deadline target for them last July.
The Orioles went for a lower-cost option instead, acquiring Jack Flaherty from St. Louis. That decision backfired, as Flaherty floundered in Baltimore to the point where the Orioles opted not to turn to him in their Wild Card series against eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers.
Burnes immediately slots into the top of the rotation for the O's, and he'll be joined by rising youngsters in Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez, both of whom were fantastic down the stretch in 2023.
A trade like this was always going to be part of Baltimore's plan for contention at some point. The absurd depth of their top-ranked farm system meant that not all of their prospects would have big league roles available to them, and that they would need to trade some of those maybes for a surefire contributor.
They got one, and now they may well be the favorites to win the AL East despite a strong off-season for the New York Yankees.
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What this Means for the Brewers
This trade was always coming for Milwaukee, who are also potentially moving on from Burnes' long-time rotation mate Brandon Woodruff, who is set to miss this season with an injury but is an attractive option for teams looking to fill a spot in 2025.
Milwaukee's insistence on keeping its payroll low meant moving on from Burnes and Woodruff by the time they hit free agency, and trading them was always preferable to losing them for nothing.
The Brewers became a mainstay in the postseason, but they failed to break through, as the 2018 NLCS was the closest they got to the World Series, and that was Burnes' first year in the league.
Milwaukee still has a distant chance at competing for the title in a weak National League Central, but losing manager Craig Counsell to the Cubs, a possible bounce back season from St. Louis, and an emerging juggernaut in Cincinnati make that unlikely.
Instead, the Brewers are likely looking at a rebuild process, adding two borderline top-100 prospects in this deal to a farm system that features likely future super star Jackson Chourio.
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