After Yoshinobu Yamamoto chose Hollywood over Broadway – and any other locale – the spurned teams must now pivot.
A natural fallback plan would be to instead pursue Brewers ace Corbin Burnes, who is in the last year of his contract and playing for a fiscally restrained team.
There’s a catch, though.
After current Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns caught plenty of heat for trading closer Josh Hader during the 2022 trade deadline, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is cognizant of making the same mistake with Burnes, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
“But the possibility exists that the team might carry Burnes into the season because of owner Mark Attanasio’s desire to compete and avoid the type of backlash the team received for trading Josh Hader at the 2022 deadline, according to major-league sources briefed on the team’s thinking,” Rosenthal reported earlier this week.
The Brewers certainly don’t have to trade Burnes now since they could always deal him at the trade deadline, but there’s always the risk of an injury with a pitcher.
Burnes, 29, won the 2021 Cy Young and went 10-8 with a 3.39 ERA last season.
The right-hander has made at least 28 starts each of the last three years, including 28 in 2021 when he posted a league-best 2.43 ERA.
The NL Central is certainly a winnable division and that could be enticement enough to keep Burnes, but the Brewers showed earlier this week that finances guide their decisions when they traded starting pitcher Adrian Houser and reserve outfielder Tyrone Taylor to the Mets to clear salary.
MLB Trade Rumors projects Burnes to earn $15.1 million this upcoming season, and as a Scott Boras client he seems likely to enter free agency.
It may be more prudent for the Brewers to get something now than wait and risk a potential underwhelming season or injury.
The losers in the Yamamoto sweepstakes include the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Giants, Blue Jays and Phillies, although the Yankees and Mets seemed the runner-ups.
Those teams could prefer to pursue free agents such as Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, although Snell has the qualifying offer attached which affects teams in the draft.
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