Corbin Burnes 'was shocked' to hear he was traded to the Orioles
When the Orioles acquired Corbin Burnes on Thursday night, it caught the baseball world off guard. It was believed all offseason that Burnes was a potential trade candidate, but after his comments on “Foul Terrority” regarding his desire to test free agency, a trade seemed unlikely.
Burnes was traded to the Orioles for pitcher DL Hall and infield prospect Joey Ortiz and the 34th pick in the 2024 MLB draft.
With spring training less than two weeks away, Burnes was preparing to go to camp with the Brewers, until he saw his phone ring and Milwaukee’s general manager Matt Arnold’s name showed on the caller id.
“I told my wife as soon as I saw the phone call that I just got traded,” Burnes said on the show. “She said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Watch.’”
Burnes intuition was correct, the Brewers were trading the 2021 National League Cy Young winner to the Charm City.
“I was shocked,” Burnes said. “Being this late in the spring with some of the moves the Brewers had made to better the offense and get some more depth ... it was definitely shock.”
The trade makes sense for the Brewers, who are a small-market team and can’t risk losing Burnes for just a compensatory draft pick in free agency.
The Orioles and Brewers had been engaged in trade talks for the right-hander at numerous points in the offseason. Arnold finally decided it was the right time to move Burnes versus waiting until the trade deadline.
“When I talked to (Orioles general manager Mike) Elias he said that the Brewers were open to trading me (earlier), then they said, ‘Nope we’re not trading him,'" Burnes said. "Then again, as of recently they were open to trading me again.
“It was kind of on-again, off-again thing for an entire offseason and eventually they got it done. I don’t know if there’s something that changed in the organization’s thought process, or if it was one of those things where they’ve been open to it the entire off-season and were just waiting for the right deal and it came. But it definitely caught me by surprise.”
Burnes brought back the Brewers two major-league ready players and a future pick and the club could look to retool their organization for the future by trading Willy Adames and Devin Williams for similar packages.
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