Toronto Blue Jays outbid Arizona Diamondbacks for Corbin Burnes, per report

The Arizona Diamondbacks made a big splash by signing Corbin Burnes late Friday night, extinguishing the Toronto Blue Jays’ hopes of landing a new ace in the process.

But it wasn’t as if the Blue Jays didn’t put in a solid effort.

According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengaleboth the Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants offered more than the six-year, $210 million Burnes ended up getting from the Diamondbacks. However, Nightengale noted that the taxes Burnes would have to pay in Canada and California — compared to those he has to pay in Arizona — factored into his final decision.

Burnes was the last of the top starting pitchers on the open market, with Max Fried headed to the New York Yankees and Blake Snell joining the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Blue Jays were linked to all of them, and for a time it looked like they might get Burnes after losing out on Fried, Juan Soto and Teoscar Hernández.

Their open checkbook wasn’t enough, though, and Toronto now heads into 2025 with a starting rotation of Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt, Bowden Francis and Yariel Rodríguez.

Having Burnes at the top of that five-man group would have given the Blue Jays one of the top rotations in the American League and potentially set them up for a return to the postseason.

Burnes went 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA, 1.096 WHIP, 8.4 strikeouts per inning. nine innings and a 3.4 WAR over 32 starts with the Baltimore Orioles in 2024. Between 2020 and 2023, as a member of the Milwaukee2 Brewers, Burnes went 37th with a 2.86 ERA, .996 WHIP, 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings and a 15.2 WAR.

The 30-year-old righty was named the NL Cy Young in 2021 and has appeared in each of the last four All-Star Games.

The Blue Jays won’t have that kind of talent coming into their rotation in 2025, barring a trade for a new target that has yet to come into focus. The money that would have gone to Burnes could be spent on a veteran bat like Alex Bregman, but it remains to be seen how serious Toronto is about entering the bidding war for his services.

George Springer’s six-year, $150 million contract remains the largest in Blue Jays history.

Continue to follow our Fastball On SI coverage on social media by liking us Facebook and by following us on Twitter @FastballFN.

You can also follow Sam Connon on Twitter @SamConnon.