The Baltimore Orioles clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday night, the first step in their quest to win a World Series.
As the Orioles inch closer to the postseason and once it finishes, their focus will be on Corbin Burnes‘ free agency.
Burnes will be the most sought-after pitcher on the market this winter. Outside of Juan Soto, there isn’t a bigger pending free agent available.
There’s no reason for Baltimore not to give him the type of money he’s looking for. The issue, however, is that it’s uncertain how much that contract could get up to.
Is there a possibility that it could reach $300 million?
He made comments about his future decision last month, and everything he said was exactly what the Orioles should’ve wanted to hear.
Burnes indicated that he wanted to play with a team with young talent.
Considering Baltimore has more young stars than any other team, that gives him what he’s looking for.
“I am going to have to do a lot of research this offseason of farm systems, young guys coming up, groups of core guys that are on a team,” Burnes said, according to Will Sammon of The Athletic. “Where does it look like teams are going to be competitive? Where are teams just looking to spend some money to make the fan base happy?”
However, again, the money will be the deciding factor in his decision.
“But you never know what’s going to happen each year in baseball. So you just want to provide yourself the best chance to win, hopefully for your entire tenure, hopefully for most of your tenure, whatever it is.”
There have been many predictions on his potential deal. Spotrac recently released their own, predicting his base calculated value to be a $215.3 million deal over seven seasons.
The chances of him getting less than $250 million seem slim due to reports around the industry, but if he could be had for that type of money and he didn’t return to the Orioles, fans would rightfully be aggravated with the front office.
He had some rough outings after the All-Star break but seems to be back on track in recent starts.
Burnes has allowed just three earned runs over his last five starts, including back-to-back appearances with at least seven strikeouts and 7.0 innings pitched.
As Baltimore heads into the postseason, they need him to be their ace.
If not, they shouldn’t expect to find much success in October.
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