Orioles Gave Up Pitcher Scouts Are Buzzing About
There is a price to be paid for every deal made in baseball. The price sometimes influences the future.
For the Baltimore Orioles acquiring pitcher Corbin Burnes, even for just one season, was a must if it wanted to take a step toward the World Series.
Burnes is a free agent after the season, but in six seasons with Milwaukee, he went 45-27 with a 3.26 ERA, struck out more than 200 hitters in each of his last three season and won a Cy Young in 2021 after leading baseball with a 2.43 ERA.
He’s finished in the Top 10 of American League Cy Young voting four times. He’s also a three-time All-Star.
A premium player requires a premium price. In this case, the price, in part, was pitcher DL Hall, who is now a Brewer.
Recently, ESPN wrote about 10 young players that scouts are buzzing about so far in spring training. Hall made the list.
He was the Orioles’ first-round pick in 2017 out of high school and he took the long road to the Majors. He finally broke in with the Orioles in 2022, going 1-1 in 11 games (one start) with a 5.93 ERA. In 2023, he spent a good portion of the season in the minors, but with the Orioles he went 3-0 with a 3.26 ERA in 18 games.
The Orioles’ rotation looks crowded this season — or at least it looked crowded before an injury to Kyle Bradish and John Means fell behind his timetable to be ready for the regular season. But that’s part of the reason Burnes is so important to the season.
But did the Orioles give up a future star? Here’s what scouts were telling ESPN about Hall:
… the Brewers landed a hard-throwing, hyperathletic left-hander whose stuff screams front end of the rotation but whose control has screamed future in the bullpen.
The Brewers used to have a hard-throwing closer at the back end of its bullpen in Josh Hader.
Could Hall be that next ninth-inning guy? Time will tell. And that will prove whether the Orioles gave up a future star to get Burnes or not.
