It sure sounds like the Orioles never took discussions with Corbin Burnes seriously

We've spent the entire off-season talking about how Corbin Burnes is exactly the type of pitcher the Orioles need to fill out their rotation. The righty was lights out during his lone year in Baltimore and finished off the season with a stellar start in Game 1 of the Wild Card series against the Royals.

And it wasn't just us. A large segment of the Orioles' fanbase wanted to see Burnes remain in Baltimore, and many MLB insiders made it sound like the two sides were a perfect fit to ink a long-term deal. Jeff Passan even came out and said he thought the Orioles might sign two of the top free agent starters on the market, back before they'd all found long-term homes.

But unfortunately for all of us, Burnes did not return to Baltimore. He signed a six-year, $210 million deal to play for the Diamondbacks, which does make sense when you consider that he and his wife live in Arizona. There's also the fact that Arizona is a tax-friendly state, so Burnes will take home more of his salary than he would have if he'd returned to Baltimore, or signed somewhere in California.

Corbin Burnes says the Orioles never offered him a free agent contract

Burnes recently commented on his experience in free agency, and one thing sticks out as a red flag. Burnes mentions that the only teams he received concrete contract offers from were the Giants and the Blue Jays. It's not clear what those teams offered, but Burnes' agent Scott Boras did indicate that Burnes turned down bigger contract offers to accept the deal in Arizona.

It was mentioned by Burnes that he did have conversations with Mike Elias and the Orioles' staff, but that the O's never formally extended him an offer. The way he phrased it was "some verbal stuff with Baltimore and Boston, but nothing I had seen in writing". That's feels unusual, and it doesn't seem like a positive thing from an O's fan's perspective.

What that signifies, at least to me, is that the Orioles are completely uncomfortable signing a pitcher to a long-term deal. Burnes was a great fit here, and pitched exceptionally well outside of a small stretch in August. But despite his strong performance in 2024 and a positive outlook moving forward, the Orioles were uncomfortable offering him a long-term contract.

If you're trying to talk yourself out of it, you can argue that Burnes is already 30 and has a decent amount of mileage on his arm. The strikeouts have been down slightly from his superb 2021 season and all pitchers come with significant injury risk, so there's at least a few reasons to be hesitant about offering a large deal to anyone, in a vacuum.

But why wouldn't the O's put an offer in writing if Burnes was someone they were seriously considering? Maybe it just means that the Orioles were never seriously interested in retaining him. But if not Burnes, then who would they be interested in signing? Clearly not anyone in this year's free agent market.

It's possible that their best offer wasn't anywhere close to the length Burnes was looking for. If they felt their max was 4-5 years, they might not have wanted to insult Burnes and chose to let him field offers from other teams. Maybe they felt that they couldn't get away with low-balling him, so they didn't even try.

It's just a little bit strange to get that news, knowing now that Elias never made a serious effort to bring Burnes back. Maybe it'll wind up working in the Orioles favor. But this team is still in need of a true ace, even if Zach Eflin is one of the more underrated pitchers in the sport. We'll have to hope the Orioles aren't desperate for a top-tier starter a few months from now while their former ace is out tearing up the NL West.