Brewers were right to trade Corbin Burnes when they did after massive contract

Most people woke up Saturday morning seeing the late breaking news overnight that former Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes had signed a massive six year, $210 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. While the destination was a bit of a surprise, the size of Burnes' contract wasn't.

The Brewers knew long ago that they would be unable to sign Corbin Burnes to a long term contract. The arbitration battle over $700k stirred up some bad feelings with Burnes and the Brewers then looked at 2024 as the year they would lose him to free agency for no more than a draft pick in compensation, a draft pick that could be years away from contributing. With an already strong rotation behind Burnes, the Brewers opted to trade Burnes to Baltimore for the 2024 season.

That has proven to be the correct move for the organization.

Trading Corbin Burnes when they did worked out for the Brewers

Granted, at the time I was opposed to moving Burnes, believing that keeping a Cy Young-winning starter would make the Brewers a better team on the field. Clearly though, the Brewers didn't suffer much on the field from not having Burnes in the rotation and benefited from having the return they got for Burnes.

Joey Ortiz had the largest impact, accruing 2.7 bWAR with 11 homers, 11 stolen bases, and a .726 OPS while providing excellent defense at third base. Ortiz is looking to be the shortstop of the future now as well with Willy Adames now in San Francisco. DL Hall battled injuries, but also showed promise to be a building block in the rotation going forward as well.

The Brewers were never going to be able to afford to keep Burnes. $210 million would be the largest contract in franchise history, surpassing even Christian Yelich's massive extension in 2020. He was going to be lost after 2024 along with Adames and while having two top 30 overall draft picks in 2025 would be big for the Brewers amateur scouting department, it'd be more difficult for the Brewers to win on the field in 2025 and beyond without that trade.

With or without that trade, the Brewers would be finding themselves without a true ace atop their rotation in 2025. Freddy Peralta took that top starter title in 2024, but he lacks the consistent high end production that befits an ace label. Brandon Woodruff is returning from shoulder surgery and it's unknown just what to expect from him and if he can reclaim that ace status quickly.

The Burnes trade gave the Brewers their likely shortstop going forward to replace Adames, a potential left handed rotation stalwart, plus a budding prospect in Blake Burke, who was selected with the CB-A selection Milwaukee also got in the Burnes trade.

It's unfortunate for the Brewers that Burnes is now back in the National League, and joined the team that knocked Milwaukee out of the playoffs in 2023. Unless they signed him, they were going to have no influence on where he landed anyway.

Congratulations to Corbin Burnes on securing the massive contract he was looking for. He and the Brewers knew all along that that deal was not going to be coming from Milwaukee, which is why that move was made when it was.