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Blue Jays Recently Met With Corbin Burnes

By Steve Adams | December 5, 2024 at 11:43am CDT

The Blue Jays held a recent in-person meeting with free agent righty Corbin Burnes, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (video link). Toronto was already connected to Burnes earlier in the offseason, but an in-person meeting between the two parties is of some note all the same. Burnes is one of multiple high-end free agents linked to the Jays in recent weeks. Toronto is, of course, one of the remaining bidders for Juan Soto and has also been tied to lefty Max Fried, outfielder Anthony Santander, infielder Willy Adames and fellow infielder Alex Bregman.

There’s a pervading sense in the industry that the Jays are highly motivated, if not desperate to make a splash in the free agent and/or trade market this offseason. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are entering their final seasons of club control. Chris Bassitt is also a free agent next winter. Kevin Gausman is only signed through 2026. Meanwhile, team president Mark Shapiro is entering the final season of his contract, while general manager Ross Atkins is signed through 2026. They’ve now been atop the Jays’ baseball operations hierarchy for nearly a decade but haven’t won a postseason game since 2016 — their first year on the job. Speculation about the pair’s job security has continued to mount as the team has underperformed.

It’s hard to envision a scenario where the Jays put down more than $600MM for Soto and then turn to give Burnes would could be a $200MM+ deal of his own. More likely, the Jays are laying some groundwork for contingency efforts in the event that Soto spurns their offer for one of his other suitors in New York, Boston or Los Angeles. For the same $600MM+ that Soto will command, the Jays could potentially extend Guerrero, sign one of Burnes/Fried and also sign one of Adames/Bregman/Santander. There’s some inherent logic to diversifying the risk when talking about a sum of $600MM+, but it’s also true that players like Burnes, Fried, Adames, Santander and Bregman are also considerably older than the 26-year-old Soto and are likelier to begin declining sooner.

With regard to Burnes in particular, he’d be a clear upgrade to what’s already a talented Jays rotation. Toronto has Gausman, Bassitt, Jose Berrios in the top three spots. Burnes, who just pitched 194 1/3 innings of 2.92 ERA ball for the division-rival Orioles, could join that trio and make up one of the best one-through-four combinations in the sport. Right-handers Bowden Francis and Yariel Rodriguez would then compete for the fifth spot. Rodriguez, notably, spent a portion of the ’24 season in the bullpen already. Toronto is generally lacking in experienced rotation depth, so adding a durable workhorse like Burnes — third in the majors in innings and fourth in ERA since 2020 — ought to hold extra appeal.

Burnes — or any of the free agents who rejected a qualifying offer — would require the forfeiture of at least the Blue Jays’ second-highest draft pick and $500K of space from next year’s bonus pool for international amateur free agency. The Jays reportedly ducked under the luxury tax threshold by a narrow margin this season, though final tax calculations haven’t yet been released. If they end up slightly over the line, they’d forfeit their second- and fifth-highest picks and $1MM of international bonus pool space.

The Yankees also met with Burnes late last month. The 2021 NL Cy Young winner has also drawn interest from the Giants and Red Sox. The incumbent Orioles have said they’d love to keep Burnes, but it remains to be seen if new owner David Rubenstein will authorize the kind of spending necessary to retain him. If he does sign elsewhere, the O’s would receive a compensatory pick after the first round of the 2025 draft, because Burnes rejected a $21.05MM qualifying offer. They’d receive the same compensation if Santander signs elsewhere after rejecting his own QO, potentially setting the Orioles up for a massive draft in 2025.

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Newsstand Toronto Blue Jays Corbin Burnes

Diamondbacks’ Starters Drawing Trade Interest
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Yankees, Phillies Among Teams With Interest In Tommy Kahnle
View Comments (26)
Post a Comment

26 Comments

  1. Rexhudler86

    10 months ago

    Jon Heyman reports the blue Jay’s are in on arson burnes.

    1
    Reply
    • jdgoat

      10 months ago

      Arson Burnes is on the tarmac ready to depart for Toronto, according to Morosi

      2
      Reply
    • Lefty_Orioles_Fan

      10 months ago

      Arson from the bases stolen when Corbin is pitching?

      Reply
  2. Sk8

    10 months ago

    He only came for the free poutine and Mr. Sub. No way he signs.

    2
    Reply
  3. just_thinkin

    10 months ago

    Smells like desperation in Toronto. Ain’t no way.

    1
    Reply
  4. top jimmy

    10 months ago

    They don’t need arms. They need bats. A lot of them.

    Reply
    • Lefty_Orioles_Fan

      10 months ago

      Why, what’s the matter with Corbin’s arm, Jimmy???

      Reply
      • scissormetimbers

        10 months ago

        Nothing is wrong with his arm. We need a team that can score too. So many of the Jay’s hitters are washed up or can’t hit.

        1
        Reply
    • MagRupe

      10 months ago

      We need arms in the bullpen. This helps do that by moving YRod

      3
      Reply
  5. Seamaholic

    10 months ago

    I like this idea. Shooting for Seattle-East (or Canadian-Seattle). Put together a fantastic rotation and hope for internal or lower-cost hitting improvement. If they have $45m for Soto, they can sign Burnes and, say, Santander with much shorter commitments, allowing them to press reset in a couple years if necessary. Which is the better path is a pretty close call.

    2
    Reply
  6. pete toms

    10 months ago

    BJ’s beat keeps reporting that Atkins has 30-40 to spend (unless it is Soto). How Burnes salary fits….i don’t get it. They should rebuild but Atkins and Shapiro are gonna try to make playoffs to save their jobs. Given vlad’s 24 production and the soaring (still) cost of SP, Jays could get a big haul for vlad, bassist and gausman. Instead, they’ll deal vlad and cb at the deadline for a fraction of what they could get now. Rosenthal said today he.’s baffled by jays mgt approach. Get in line Ken!

    Reply
  7. Old York

    10 months ago

    Man, Jays are going to have a stacked team with all these players they’re meeting with. Should make them good enough to locking up the division in June. Can’t see the O’s, Yanks or Sox recovering them that and the Rays won’t be in the division, as they’ll be playing AAA teams this year in their AAA stadium.

    1
    Reply
  8. seth3120

    10 months ago

    Why is everyone so adamant Burnes won’t sign with the Jays? They are at least acting like they are interested in shelling out big money this offseason and I can’t see them signing Soto. Byrnes doesn’t seem out of reach for them

    Reply
  9. dano62

    10 months ago

    Sign Flaherty, sign o’Neill, sign Polonco; miss playoffs – Toronto’s Adkins’ diet!

    Reply
  10. User 4014041831

    10 months ago

    Just a TOR observer I believe their pitching staf can use at least 2 or 3 upgrades BUT I think their main problem is Offense.
    A bounce back year from Bichette should help, improvement for emerging 2024 players

    They need at least 2 impact offense players
    They could be all like older 3 tier types like Kepler, Bader and Urshela but they should set their sights higher.

    Reply
  11. HatlessPete

    10 months ago

    More than any other club in on soto I’d say the blue jays are better served by spreading money around to multiple additions. Gotta figure they’re lowest on the probability scale of actually getting him anyhow. Not much projectable org stability rn and a roster with a lot of current and future holes. And to a lesser but non-zero degree imo, less marquee big market cachet.

    Reply
  12. Guayacon

    10 months ago

    Nah Dodgers will sign burned for 300 mil with deferred money in 20 years

    1
    Reply
  13. Bluejaysjunkie

    10 months ago

    I am admittedly a Toronto Fan however I am so frustrated with this teams lack of…… everything that I have lost hope. If there is a time, the time is now to sh#t or get off the pot! Sign ppl.

    1
    Reply
  14. Bluejaysjunkie

    9 months ago

    Anyone on this website think Ken Rosthenal is a douce bag?

    Reply
  15. MLBTR needs to hire editors

    9 months ago

    “Rodriguez, notably, spent a portion of the ’24 season in the bullpen already.“ Come on. This is not something a professional writer or editor tolerates. “Notably” has to start the sentence; interrupting subject and verb for no reason is inexcusable.

    Reply

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