In what is easily the most stunning move of the winter — sorry, Luis Severino to Sacramento, you’ve been usurped — the Snakes of Arizona have shelled out an astonishing bucket of cash ($210 million over six years) for free-agent right-hander Corbin Burnes.
The market’s top starting pitcher available had reportedly been aggressively pursued by San Francisco and Toronto. He instead opted for a D-backs team that did not appear in dire need of rotation reinforcements but seized the opportunity to add elite talent to its roster nevertheless. Early reports indicate that the Giants and Blue Jays offered larger deals but the lower taxes in Arizona helped amplify the Snakes’ offer relatively. Additionally, Burnes and his wife Brooke had twins earlier this year, and signing with the Snakes will afford him significantly more time at their Scottsdale home.
While Burnes may have spurned larger raw numbers for lower taxes and family comfort in the desert, let’s not act like he signed a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training. No, he did not ultimately secure an especially lengthy deal of eight or even nine years that many expected he could have, especially after Max Fried signed an eight-year deal. But $35 million AAV tied Stephen Strasburg for sixth-highest ever for a starting pitcher. And with an opt-out reportedly in his deal after two years, Burnes could re-enter the market after 2026 at age-32 — the same age Blake Snell is now — and cash in again elsewhere if he continues to excel and he decides to forgo the rest of his deal with the Snakes. This contract clearly provides Burnes a combination of immense financial security and personal comfort, while also adding him to a roster that is ready to compete.
There’s also one element of this deal that lessens the shock factor considerably: there’s a bit of déjà vú involved here. It was nearly a decade ago that this same franchise came out of nowhere in December to sign star right-hander Zack Greinke to a six-year, $206.5 million deal after Greinke had opted out of the three years, $71 million remaining on his Dodgers contract. At the time, Greinke was two years older than Burnes is now, but was also in the midst of his prime and was coming off an even better season than the one Burnes had in 2024, having led the NL in ERA and WHIP and finished second in NL Cy Young balloting. The Dodgers were seriously interested in retaining Greinke but were unwilling to go to the lengths Arizona did.
Though the contract size and the stature of the pitcher surprisingly reeled in by the Snakes feels similar, there are also some stark differences between these two titanic signings. Greinke joined a D-backs team that hadn’t had a winning season since 2011. He was a veteran ace brought in to anchor a young rotation of talented but unproven arms like Robbie Ray, Patrick Corbin, Archie Bradley and Shelby Miller. Arizona appeared to be trending in the right direction — and it ultimately reached October in 2017 after a disastrous 93-loss campaign in Greinke’s first season in the desert — but he wasn’t exactly joining a proven winner.
Conversely, Burnes now joins a hungry D-backs team that is just one year removed from an NL pennant and came within a whisker of another postseason appearance in 2024. Furthermore, he becomes the prime attraction on a pitching staff loaded with veterans, including two who just signed large deals last winter in Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery. Montgomery’s terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad 2024 appears to leave him as the odd man out — the D-backs would surely love to dump his contract elsewhere via trade — but a healthy E-Rod should welcome Burnes alongside right-handers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly atop a highly accomplished rotation. Add in 26-year-old Brandon Pfaadt who projects to be one of the better No. 5 starters around, and Arizona appears to have built one of the deeper starting staffs in the National League. This huge commitment to Burnes also represents an anticipatory move of sorts, with both Gallen and Kelly slated to hit free agency next winter. The D-backs have some decent pitching depth in the upper-levels of their farm system but nothing resembling a future ace who could step in if/when Gallen and Kelly depart. Burnes now fills that potential void in a big way — at least for 2026 (don’t forget the opt-out!).
After an awfully quiet first month, Arizona has burst onto the scene over the past few weeks with two aggressive moves to reassert their relevance in the National League hierarchy, first acquiring first baseman Josh Naylor from Cleveland to replace Christian Walker and now this gigantic agreement with one of the best starting pitchers on the market. With key offensive contributors Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk no longer in tow, some questions remain about the depth of the lineup, and the bullpen — a clear weakness — has holes as well. But Burnes is one of the few players left on the market who can meaningfully raise the floor and ceiling of a roster, even if he didn’t appear to address an obvious need. This is a huge win for the D-backs as they look to keep their contention window open, and a huge blow to the runners-up for Burnes’ services — San Francisco and Toronto — who again came up short in their pursuits of a superstar.