Before he faces the Brewers, Corbin Burnes opens up about his time in Milwaukee and the trade

BALTIMORE – There was a sight that made observers do a double-take Friday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. No, it wasn’t the home debut of the top prospect in baseball, Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday. Nor was it the brick B&O Warehouse just beyond the right-field fence, one of the most iconic ballpark features there is.

It was one of the best pitchers in Milwaukee Brewers history chatting near the visiting dugout with old pals while wearing black and orange.

The Brewers three game set in with the Baltimore Orioles not only brings together starting pitcher Corbin Burnes and his former team for the first time since he was traded in a blockbuster deal on Feb. 1.

Burnes not only gets the chance to catch up with former teammates over the weekend, he gets to face them.

Burnes, who is off to a 2-0 start with a 1.93 ERA with the Orioles, is scheduled to pitch on Sunday.

“No one in particular,” Burnes said Friday when asked who he was looking forward to facing the most. “For me it's always fun facing guys that I haven't faced before. In that lineup, it’s full of guys I haven’t faced before except for some live batting practice in spring training every year. But it's a lot different atmosphere in a game.

“I’m sure I’ll see guys out on the field before the game. It was kind of an abrupt finish to my time there just because you're getting excited to get back into camp, see how everyone's offseason was. Then before you the chance to do that year, you’re shipped off to a place you don't know.”

Burnes sees why he was traded but gets fans' disappointment

Burnes grew to know Milwaukee well. Across six seasons with the Brewers, he had a 3.26 ERA, struck out 870 batters in 709 ⅓ innings, made three National League all-star teams and won the Cy Young Award in 2021.

Because of his contract situation – Burnes is a free agent at year’s end – and the Brewers’ propensity to trade away players while they can still get something for them in return, Burnes, arguably the top pitching chip available on the trade market this winter, figured he was likely to get moved.

That was a constant question in the back of his head throughout his time in Milwaukee, including in 2019, when he said he was almost traded at the deadline.

When the calendar flipped to February this year and he still was on the Brewers roster, Burnes figured there was no question where he would start the 2024 season.

“I feel like my name has always been floated as a possible trade guy,” Burnes said. “You heard about it every offseason, you heard about it every trade deadline and it never came to happen. So it's kind of like, well, maybe not. But then obviously you put yourself in perspective of what market you’re in and what they've done here so in that sense, it's not surprising.

“The fact that it came so late was surprising. At that point, we were 10 days away from reporting to camp when it happened. Definitely, it was strange, but they got to do what they got to do.”

Burnes, who was publicly frustrated with how Milwaukee handled his arbitration process leading up to the 2023 season, said he understands why the Brewers felt the need to trade him despite his status as one of the game’s premier pitchers.

“I understand obviously where smaller markets like the Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, some of these other teams – you can’t throw the Oakland A's in there because they don't win – but teams where guys come up, they do well, they get shipped," Burnes said. "A lot of them, that's their formula to control their payroll and what they can spend. They’re able to go out and get new, young guys to mold them into big-leaguers. And so the fact that they were able to do it and win in those years, I think should be exciting for a fanbase.

On the flip side, the 29-year-old also pointed out why a steady churn of trading young players can be frustrating for some fans.

“But fans latch on to guys,” Burnes continued. “They have their favorites. So when they have guys that are like, ‘Hey, we really liked this guy and then two years later, they ship him out,’ you can understand where the frustration comes from. Even with young fans – and just in general in baseball – kids watch and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, there's Brice Turang. I love Brice Turang.’ And then three years down the road, they trade them and it's like, ‘Well, that kind of sucks. I was hoping to watch him for the next 10 years.’

“So it's just tough because you understand where fans come from. You latch onto those guys through their minor-league career and hope they’re a Brewer for life, that kind of thing. But you understand from a market size standpoint and front office standpoint, you're trying to win, and the best way that they can do it as far as controlling payrolls, they have to make those tough decisions. So you kind of see both sides of it.”

Burnes calls time in Milwaukee 'successful' but ultimately wanted more

From his locker in the home clubhouse at Camden Yards, Burnes wrapped up his interview by discussing how he will remember his time in Milwaukee.

“As far as what we did on the field, the most successful thing is five of six years making the postseason,” Burnes said. “I think there's very few guys in that span of time that could say they did that.”

Yet, Burnes was left wanting more. He said as much following the Brewers’ early playoff exit last year, when the Arizona Diamondbacks ousted them in two games in the wild card round.

Burnes at the time indicated he wanted the Brewers to keep their current core together as much as possible in hopes of taking one more crack at winning an elusive World Series.

“If you're looking at winning as a whole, at the end of the season, when it comes down to it, we had many chances to go deep in the postseason and we felt like we had teams to do it,” Burnes said. “Whether it was one piece away or just a couple of bad games away, we didn’t get it done. But then again, shoot,, in 2018 we’re maybe one Chris Taylor dive away from maybe getting into the World Series. We kind of had that feeling every year of, ‘Damn, well, we were that close again. We were that close again.’ But considering we went to the playoffs five or six times, it’s pretty tough to say it was unsuccessful.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Corbin Burnes opens up on Orioles trade, time with the Brewers