Corbin Burnes Trade: Breaking Down Every Orioles, Brewers Player Involved

Image credit: Corbin Burnes (Photo by Kayla Wolf/Getty Images)

The Orioles are finally cashing in some of their surplus prospect capital in a win-now move to improve the 2024 club.

The team is acquiring ace righthander Corbin Burnes from the Brewers in exchange for lefthander DL Hall, shortstop Joey Ortiz and a 2024 supplemental first round pick.

The move comes in the same week it was announced that the Angelos family agreed to sell a majority stake in the organization and after a long offseason of criticism that the team hadn’t done enough to supplement an exciting, homegrown core of position players built around Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and current No. 1 overall prospect Jackson Holliday.

ORIOLES RECEIVE

Corbin Burnes, RHP
Age: 29

Burnes is a three-time All-Star who won the 2021 NL Cy Young award and has finished inside the top eight in the voting for the award in each of the last four seasons. Since 2020, Burns has pitched to a 2.86 ERA and 2.84 FIP across 622.1 innings with a 30.9% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. He’s one of a handful of pitchers in the league who can lay claim to true ace status, and enters his age-29 season in 2024 with just one season under club control before entering free agency. In the last four seasons, only Phillies righthander Zack Wheeler has accumulated more fWAR than Burnes and the righthander has also been a workhorse by modern day standards with at least 167 innings pitched in each of the last three seasons.

BREWERS RECEIVE

DL Hall, LHP
Age: 25

Hall has long flashed some of the most exciting pure stuff you could ask for from a lefthanded pitcher. He has three separate pitches that grade as plus or better, headlined by a top-of-the-scale fastball that sits in the mid 90s with excellent riding life and bat-missing traits at the top of the zone. His slider is also a plus offering in the mid-to-high 80s that is a weapon in same-side matchups, and a changeup that has developed into another plus offering and is tough against righties. Control has always been the Achilles’ heel for Hall and led to significant reliever risk, but he did show improvement in this area in 2023 and posted just a 6.2% walk rate in a 19-inning big-league stint out of the bullpen.  He ranked as the Orioles No. 6 overall prospect and is No. 93 on the Top 100.

Joey Ortiz, SS
Age: 25

Ortiz had an all-glove, light-bat profile coming out of college in 2019 when he was a fourth-round draft pick out of New Mexico State. Like many Baltimore hitters, he has improved his hitting ability within the system and is coming off a strong 2023 season where he slashed .321/.378/.507 with nine home runs and 30 doubles with Triple-A Norfolk. His bat-to-ball skills are more advanced than his power, and his game still revolves around his excellent defensive work at shortstop—he is among the best defenders in the minors and has double-plus fielding upside at a premium position—but his bat has improved enough to give him everyday regular big league upside. Ortiz ranked as the No. 7 prospect in the Orioles system.

2024 supplemental first round pick (No. 34)

Teams are allowed to trade supplemental draft picks and the Brewers will get the 34th overall pick in the 2024 draft in this trade as well. The Braves recently made a similar move when they acquired the 35th overall pick in the 2022 draft in a trade that sent Drew Waters to the Royals and they used that pick to acquire current No. 3 prospect JR Ritchie. The 2024 draft is shaping up as a down year compared to the 2023 class. You can see players who rank in the 30-40 range on our recently updated draft board here.