The Baltimore Orioles had an impressive trade deadline, landing multiple pitchers who should help the ball club as they deal with a few injuries on the mound.
However, they didn’t find another elite arm, which could come back to hurt them in the next few months.
If the Orioles let Corbin Burnes walk, there’s a chance they’ll be searching for the same exact thing they were looking for just one offseason ago: an ace.
There were rumors they were going to be aggressive in pursuing Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers, which made sense for many reasons.
Not only would Skubal have given them an ace-caliber arm to pair with Burnes for a postseason push and have the best duo in baseball during the playoffs, and if Burnes leaves, Skubal would’ve been his clear replacement.
Burnes is on his way to potentially winning another Cy Young Award, which would be the second one of his career.
He’s also finished within the Top 10 in each of the past four seasons and he’s all but guaranteed to at least finish top two this time around.
In 138.2 innings pitched, the California native has been as good as advertised for Baltimore. He’s posted a 2.47 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and has 128 strikeouts.
Due to him pitching the way he has, there’s a good chance he’s going to command nearly $300 million in free agency.
If history repeats itself, the Orioles aren’t a team that typically gives that type of money out.