The Arizona Diamondbacks pulled off what might be the most shocking move of the offseason. Late Friday night it was reported that free agent pitcher Corbin Burnes was signed to a six year, $210 million contract. Burnes is reported to have an opt out clause after 2026. The team has yet to make the deal official.
As a journalist it’s my job to sniff these types of moves out, but this one catches me totally by surprise, for two reasons.
Stated Priorities
The first is that Mike Hazen has never publicly identified starting pitcher as a priority area he was looking to add. In all his interviews he stressed the need to rebuild the offense and add to the back end of the bullpen.
The only indication that he might be interested in starting pitching was the fact that they scouted Japanese free agent Roki Sasaki heavily over the summer, and were rumored to be among the teams keen on signing him early in the offseason…