Corbin Burnes is a curveball for O’s foes
Starting right-hander has spent last six years in National League
SARASOTA, Fla. — Changing leagues isn’t what it used to be, but Orioles starter Corbin Burnes is facing a new challenge as he prepares to pitch in the American League for the first time in his career.
The Orioles acquired Burnes, 29, in a blockbuster trade this offseason from the Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he had spent his entire major league career. Of his more than 700 innings at the MLB level, just over 150 have been against AL competition. The AL East has been particularly elusive for Burnes: The Orioles are the only team in the division he’s faced more than once.
The right-hander’s arrival in Baltimore represents a relatively clean slate for Burnes as he faces a new crop of opposing hitters, though recent rule changes have made it less of a drastic change than it was as recently as three years ago.
The National League adopted the designated hitter in 2022, ending the league’s split on the rule that had been in effect since 1973. MLB also instituted a schedule change last season that allowed all 30 teams to play each other every year at the expense of some intradivisional series.
“It’s kind of different now, it’s a little bit more balanced schedule,” Burnes said in the Orioles’ clubhouse Sunday. “So, you kind of face everyone throughout the course of the season, which was a lot different than what we did three years ago when it feels like you make four starts a year against the [Cincinnati] Reds, four or five starts a year against the [Chicago] Cubs. It just so happened to line up that way.”
Even so, most of the Orioles’ AL opponents are going to see Burnes for the first time this season, a situation that both catcher James McCann and manager Brandon Hyde agree is more difficult for the hitter than the other way around.
“I think that, for him, there’s going to be guys that haven’t seen or haven’t been in the NL Central for five years,” McCann said. “He’s going to be facing hitters that have a very limited sample size [against him]. Usually, limited sample size tends to lean in the pitcher’s favor so hopefully it’s going to be the same for him.”
Burnes’ track record backs that up. He owns a lifetime 2.56 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 4.68 strikeout-towalk ratio in interleague play, all better than his career averages. Recent history has also shown high-profile starters who changed leagues under the current system have found success. Starters Luis Castillo, Zach Eflin and Pablo López placed fifth, sixth and seventh in AL Cy Young Award voting last season, respectively, after moving over from the NL either over the offseason or at the 2022 trade deadline.
Of course, it’s no guarantee. The Orioles gave Jack Flaherty his first taste of the AL when they traded for him in August and he struggled down the stretch. Yet Burnes will be one of many starters looking to follow in the footsteps of the former group. Other pitchers to change leagues for the first time this offseason include Chris Sale (traded to Atlanta Braves), Tyler Glasnow (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Anthony DeSclafani (Minnesota Twins).
“It just means doing a couple
extra hours’ work of scouting reporting, game planning and looking over video and scouting reports just to put a game plan together,” Burnes said of how facing an opponent for the first time changes his game plan.
“For me, it’s really not that much different from start to start. If we’re facing the team for the third or fourth time in the year, you’re just making some small tweaks to the scouting report that you’ve seen when you’ve played them or seeing their new guys are doing stuff.”
The Yankees’ Aaron Judge is 0-for-3 with a strikeout against Burnes. The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 1-for-4 with a single in his lone opportunity to face him. The Red Sox’s Rafael Devers finished 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a double play when Boston went to Milwaukee in April last season. Randy Arozarena and the rest of the Rays’ homegrown hitters have never faced him.
Burnes is a mystery as far as the rest of the division is concerned, an unknown that will present the Orioles’ rivals with a challenge they’ve never faced. The film room can help a hitter prepare, but there’s no replicating a live at-bat against one of the league’s best arms.
“You typically lean on your pitcher’s strengths and then you adjust when the hitter has shown that they’ve adjusted,” McCann said. “But at the end of the day, hitting in the game of baseball is reactive, right? You set out the game plan and if it works you keep going with it.”