Corbin Burnes landing spots: Best fits for free-agent ace as best pitcher still available on the market

There’s no hard and fast time that the annual winter meetings conclude, but executives typically start flying home by Wednesday night, so it’s safe to say things are drawing to a close. There’s been some movement, starting with the late Sunday night Juan Soto signing. 

In terms of the high-end pitching market, things have started to move a bit. Blake Snell signed with the Dodgers before Thanksgiving, but during the winter meetings, Max Fried signed with the Yankees and Garrett Crochet was traded to the Red Sox. A tier below, but Nathan Eovaldi signed a deal to return to the Rangers, too. 

Remember that 23-year-old Roki Sasaki has been posted and that starters like Jack Flaherty and Sean Manaea remain free agents, but the top pitcher left is easily Corbin Burnes. The big right-hander has finished sixth, first, seventh, eighth and fifth, respectively, in Cy Young voting the last five seasons and has made at least 28 starts in each of the last four seasons.

Where might he land? Here are the five teams that make the most sense and have been rumored, even loosely, to be in the mix. 

Baltimore Orioles

They had him last year and continuity is never a bad thing. This new ownership needs to flex its financial muscles at some point to show the fan base that this front office is a lot more than just building a strong farm system and then getting bounced without advancing in the playoffs. Doing what it takes to land Burnes over some large markets would be a beautiful start there. 

The rotation needs a frontline starter, too. With Burnes at the top, Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodríguez look a lot better in the 2-3 spots with Dean Kremer and either Albert Suárez or a mulligan for Trevor Rogers coming next. 

They’ve already missed their chance to deal from that substantial stack of prospects for Crochet, so it’s time to get out that wallet.

Boston Red Sox

Once they landed Crochet, their chances of winning the Burnes bidding likely (though the Boston Globe reports that they’re still in on more pitchers). They should be! With the Dodgers and Yankees — and maybe Mets, too — likely out on Burnes, why not go win the bidding for Burnes? Crochet is cheap ($2.9 million estimated arbitration salary for 2025), so it’s not like they have used a bunch of that Juan Soto money yet. 

If the Red Sox did land Burnes, the rotation entering the season would be Burnes, Crochet, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello with Lucas Giolito returning around midseason. Now that looks like a playoff rotation. 

New York Mets

There are whispers that president of baseball operations David Stearns prefers to avoid big-money deals for pitchers, but the Mets can absolutely afford to blow Burnes away. After landing Soto, why stop there? The rotation at present is Kodai Senga, Frankie Montas, David Peterson, Paul Blackburn and Clay Holmes, who is converting from relief. Throwing Burnes at the top of that rotation sure makes a potential playoff rotation look a lot more scary.

San Francisco Giants

New president of baseball ops Buster Posey appears to be making his mark. He was said to have had a hand in extending Matt Chapman late in the season and the Giants have already signed Willy Adames to take over at shortstop. Snell was the Giants’ ace down the stretch in 2024 and he’s gone to the Dodgers, so Burnes would make a fine replacement. 

The Giants’ rotation would then start with Burnes and Logan Webb before getting to youngster Kyle Harrison and Robbie Ray in his first full season coming off Tommy John surgery. They went 80-82 last season and the roster would already feel stronger. 

Toronto Blue Jays

Like the Red Sox above, the Jays also lost out on Soto. Conceivably, this means they have money to spend. They’ve also been linked rather heavily in rumors to Burnes. Remember, they have Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. under team control for just one more season and have ostensibly been trying to extend both for a while. One of the steps involved there would be convincing the duo that the team is built to win.

If the Jays landed Burnes, the rotation would be Burnes, Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Bowden Francis and Chris Bassitt, a potentially great 1-5. They already beefed up their infield defense with the trade for Platinum Glove second baseman Andrés Giménez, too. 

And here are six more that should be in, even if they haven’t been connected strongly in rumors. 

Atlanta Braves

The perennial playoff team has to deal with the Mets and Phillies in the NL East, not to mention a possibly up-and-coming Nationals ballclub. They just let Fried walk in free agency, yet the rotation is littered with questions. Can Chris Sale, heading to his age-36 season, continue to pitch like an ace? Was that Reynaldo López season a fluky one-off? Is Spencer Schwellenbach for real? How will Spencer Strider fare in coming off major surgery? 

The Braves have plenty of money, too. There’s no good reason they shouldn’t be in on Burnes.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs have a full rotation and a full lineup right now, but it isn’t much different than the team that just won 83 games for the second straight year. Three of their top four starters are lefties in Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele and Matthew Boyd. Adding Burnes would not only give them the ability to float some pitching along with the position players known to be on the block (Nico Hoerner, Cody Bellinger, Isaac Paredes, et al) in order to upgrade the offense. The team as a whole is basically a collection of decent or pretty good players and that’s one of the reasons they were mediocre. Signing Burnes would give them a star atop the rotation while also maybe clearing the way to add another via trade (Kyle Tucker?). 

It does not, however, look like either Tom Ricketts or Jed Hoyer (or both) desire to spend on Burnes. 

Detroit Tigers

Coming off a monster second half that got them all the way to the ALDS, the Tigers have momentum right now. They don’t have much salary on the books moving forward, either, save for the sunk cost of Javier Báez, but that shouldn’t be prohibitive to spending big on a starting pitcher. They aren’t in a tiny market. 

The rotation right now includes ace and Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, Alex Cobb, Casey Mize and young stud Jackson Jobe. There’s definitely room to pair Burnes with Skubal as an elite-level righty-lefty combo there. 

It seems like a no-brainer here, but the Tigers haven’t really been connected to Burnes in rumors at all. 

Los Angeles Angels

They already signed Yusei Kikuchi to join Tyler Anderson in the rotation. José Soriano looks pretty good. Reid Detmers was awful last season and it’s hard to believe Kyle Hendricks has much if anything left in the tank. The Angels have plenty of money and they continue to be committed to trying to make it work around Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon without totally tearing it down, so throw some more of that money around. 

Texas Rangers

My guess is the Rangers are focusing more on building their bullpen and adding another bat. That rotation right now with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford, Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray and maybe Kumar Rocker certainly has some upside. There just aren’t many sure things in there and Burnes would provide some stability on a team one year removed from a World Series title. 

Washington Nationals

Are the Nats ready to emerge from their rebuild in a tough NL East? Perhaps! Swooping in and grabbing Burnes would announce their presence with authority. 

MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker can serve as quality starters, but there’s no ace in there. Burnes just completely changes the complexion of that group. On the position-player side, the Nationals already have CJ Abrams in addition to very promising young outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews. They’ve also been rumored to have shown interest in free agents Gleyber Torres and Christian Walker. 

There is hardly any salary on the books for the Nationals at all in the future and we’ve seen them spend big before. Grabbing Burnes, Walker and Torres could help jumpstart a push back toward relevance.