Milwaukee Brewers Ace Makes Revealing Comments on Where His Head is At Right Now

Milwaukee Brewers ace pitcher Corbin Burnes has been the subject of much discussion this offseason.

First, the Brewers need Burnes to step up and be the Cy Young-caliber ace that he was in the 2021 season. In the wake of losing Brandon Woodruff to injury and then a subsequent non-tender, Burnes is the best chance the Brewers have at putting together a rotation capable of winning the National League Central again.

Second, Burnes has been the subject of trade discussions all offseason. He's going into the final year of his contract and the Brewers likely can't/won't afford to re-sign him in the offseason. If that's the case, there's always the desire to get value from your assets. Losing Woodruff likely complicates things, as do these comments, which came from Burnes this week on the "Foul Territory" podcast:

Being in my shoes, being a year away from [free agency], I think if a trade-and-extension type of deal came up — obviously, every guy that gets this close to free agency wants to test the market to see what your true dollar amount is, see what teams really are in on you. It would have to be something that would just absolutely blow you away to get you away from testing the free agent market and being able to choose where you want to go.

I think that’s one thing every player in their career wants to get to. Once you get that six years of service time — which for a lot of guys takes seven, eight, sometimes nine years to get to — you get that chance to test the market and see what your top dollar is.”

"Every guy who gets this close to free agency wants to test the market"

Corbin Burnes says he would have to be blown away by an extension to avoid free agency if he were traded.

▶️ https://t.co/A1LN2Bqv4J pic.twitter.com/WkXcMVLBi9
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) December 19, 2023

So the bottom line is this: Burnes isn't going to sign a contract extension with Milwaukee before hitting free agency. He also isn't going to sign a contract extension with any team that trades for him, like Tyler Glasnow did with the Dodgers. This means the Brewers may be more likely to want to trade him, but other teams may be more leery of giving things up for him.

Quite the conundrum indeed.

He's coming off a year which saw him go 10-8 with a 3.39 ERA. Lifetime, he's a three-time All-Star who won the Cy Young Award in 2021. He is 45-27 for his career with a 3.26 ERA.

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