Buster Posey got his shortstop. He didn’t get his ace.
Right-hander Corbin Burnes has agreed on a six-year, $210 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the largest contract in franchise history, according to multiple reports. Now, if the Giants are to upgrade their starting rotation this offseason, they will have to fall back on their contingency plans.
San Francisco had reportedly been a favorite to sign Burnes, who grew up in Bakersfield and attended Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. Burnes, winner of the 2021 NL Cy Young Award, will join right-handers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly on the Diamondbacks, a divisional rival who led all of baseball in runs last season.
Arizona wasn’t the only team in the NL West to get stronger on Friday. Earlier in the evening, outfielder Teoscar Hernández reportedly agreed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a three-year, $66 million deal. Along with Hernández, the defending World Series champions have signed a pair of former Giants in left-hander Blake Snell and outfielder Michael Conforto as well as right-handed reliever Blake Treinen and utility man Tommy Edman (extension). The Dodgers, unsurprisingly, are also a favorite to land Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki.
The San Diego Padres have yet to make a true impact move this offseason, and there’s a realistic chance they lose shortstop Ha-Seong Kim and outfielder Jurickson Profar in free agency. Still, the Padres are coming off a season where they won 93 games and nearly upset the Dodgers in the NLDS, taking a 2-1 lead before their offense faltered in Games 4 and 5. They, like the Dodgers, are a favorite to land Sasaki.
Signing Burnes would have unquestionably given the Giants a better chance of competing in baseball’s most stacked division, and several of San Francisco’s players were vocal about the team’s pursuit of Burnes.
After signing a franchise-record seven-year, $182 million contract with the Giants, Willy Adames said at his introductory press conference that he would be in contact with Burnes, who he played alongside with the Milwaukee Brewers. Logan Webb said on “The Chris Rose Rotation” that signing Burnes would “almost be like a perfect match.” With Burnes joining the Diamondbacks, Adames and Webb will have to spend much of the next half-decade competing against Burnes.
In failing to land Burnes, San Francisco’s rotation projects to consist of Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong — the same quintet they had in place entering the Winter Meetings.
The best available unsigned starting pitcher is right-hander Jack Flaherty, who bounced back last season (3.17 ERA, 162 innings) and won a World Series with the Dodgers after struggling from 2020-23 (4.42 ERA, 299 innings). Aside from Flaherty, there aren’t many true impact arms on the market.
In recent weeks, the list of free-agent starters who have inked deals includes Max Fried, Nathan Eovaldi, Sean Manaea, Walker Buehler, Alex Cobb, Shane Bieber, Luis Severino, Frankie Montas and Matthew Boyd. Aside from Flaherty, San Francisco’s options include Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Charlie Morton, José Quintana, Patrick Corbin and Kyle Gibson, among others.
San Francisco will also likely make a pitch to Sasaki, but there is a realistic chance that Sasaki — like Burnes and Snell – joins one of the Giants’ divisional rivals, whether it be the Dodgers or Padres.
The Giants still need to upgrade their starting rotation if they want to compete in a stacked NL West next season. How they do so at this juncture is unclear.