Corbin Burnes May Not Be A Future Brewer

During baseball spring training, a frustrated Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes called out the organization for rejecting his $10.75 million offer. He felt disrespected by the organization offering him $10.01 million and undervaluing him.

Adam McCalvy of the MLB interviewed Burnes. “You work hard for seven years in the organization and five years with the big league team, and you get in there and basically they value you much different than what you thought you’d contributed to the organization,” said McCalvy, of Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes.

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, there was an arbitration hearing decision between the Brewers and Corbin Burnes about his value after their Tuesday meeting in Florida. The organization won against the pitcher.

The organization believes Burnes’s 2023 salary should be at $10.01 million rather than $10.75 million. There was a $740,000 difference. This could affect Corbin Burnes’ future with the Brewers.

During the hearing between the two parties, the organization blamed Burnes for the club missing the 2022 postseason. Also, Burnes has four years of service time with the club which was a disadvantage for him.

According to Gabe Lacque from USA Today, “Basically putting me in the forefront of why we didn’t make it to the postseason last year,” said Burnes to Lacque.

They were betting on his previous success to help the team make the postseason and him not having six or more years with the club.

“Arbitration is an adversarial process; it only happens when a team and a player disagree on a contractual amount during a player’s fourth, fifth and sixth major-league seasons,” said UWM Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies Professor Michael L Mirer.

It is a stage the club and player avoid this disagreement about a player’s salary value, but it comes to this finding out whose argument is validated. Difference between the numbers of an asking price for a bonus or yearly pay.

“When a case reaches the arbitration stage, the team is arguing outwardly why a player is not worth the amount he is asking for. Hearing your employer denigrate your work is usually an unpleasant experience,” said Mirer.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interviewed then general manager and now Brewers President Operations Matt Arnold about arbitration with Corbin Burnes. 

“There are very relevant comparables for him on both sides of the ledger that make sense, and it’s certainly just part of the process,” said Brewers President of Baseball Operations Matt Arnold to the newspaper.

The advantage of arbitration for the clubs is the player needs to have 6th more years of service.

The previous season, Corbin Burnes won the 2021 NL Cy award and is ranked in the top 5 best pitchers from the MLB.

–