Orioles acquire Brewers righty Corbin Burnes in trade

One day after the Orioles' pending ownership change was announced by the club, the team tonight announced it has acquired the frontline starting pitcher it sought all winter with a trade for Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes.

The Orioles are sending lefty pitcher DL Hall, infielder Joey Ortiz and a 2024 draft pick to Milwaukee to get the 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner. The pick is the No. 34 overall selection, a Competitive Balance Round A pick. Competitive Balance picks are the only ones that can be traded. After this deal, the Orioles would still have the Nos. 22 and 32 picks in this summer’s draft.

The last four seasons in Cy Young voting, Burnes, 29, has finished sixth, first, seventh and eighth. He is a three-time All Star.

Burnes is, at this point, a one-year addition for the Orioles. He is repped by Scott Boras and can be a free agent at the end of the 2024 season.

Last year for the Brewers, he went 10-8 with a 3.39 ERA over 32 starts and 193 2/3 innings with a 1.069 WHIP, a 3.1 walk rate and 9.3 strikeout rate.

In his final 14 starts of last season, Burnes had a 2.71 ERA and 0.98 WHIP. In that span, he also allowed just a .187 batting average and .553 OPS with a 47.2 groundball rate and 10.22 K rate.

Burnes led the NL last season in WHIP and ranked among league leaders in opponent average (second, .200), hits per nine innings (second, 6.55), innings pitched (tied fifth), ERA (sixth), quality starts (sixtg, 19) and strikeouts (10th, 200). He was honored as the NL Pitcher of the Month in July after going 4-1 with a 1.85 ERA.

Burnes has a career 3.26 ERA for an ERA+ of 129, or 29 percent above league average.

Burnes recently agreed to a contract for this season of $15,637,500 to avoid a hearing in his final year or arbitration.

The Orioles, in their history since 1954, have just five seasons of a pitcher fanning 200 or more batters, three by Mike Mussina and one each by Erik Bedard and Dave McNally. Burnes, who has a career 11.0 K rate, has fanned 200 or more in three straight years. He led the NL in strikeouts with 243 in 2022.

Burnes made three starts in 2023 against American League East teams, giving up just two earned runs over 21 innings for an ERA of 0.86. On June 7 at home against Baltimore, he held the Orioles scoreless on just two hits over eight innings. In five career starts versus AL East clubs, he is 2-0 with a 1.26 ERA.

The Orioles now could sport a 2024 rotation of Burnes, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, John Means and Dean Kremer. That rotation would allow them to begin the season with Tyler Wells working out of the bullpen.

Hall, 25, the club's top draft pick in 2017, went 3-0 with a 3.26 ERA in 18 major league games last year. He was recently ranked as the No. 93 prospect in baseball by Baseball America.

Ortiz, 25, was the club's fourth-round pick in 2019. He went 7-for-33 last year in 15 big league games after making his major league debut on April 27. With the Orioles, he hit .212/.206/.242/.448. In 88 games with Triple-A Norfolk, he posted an OPS of .885. He is ranked as the sport's No. 63 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 91 by ESPN.