San Francisco Giants Can Upgrade Rotation By Signing Corbin Burnes

The San Francisco Giants lost their ace, but it's possible they could make a rare upgrade after losing a star in signing Corbin Burnes.

Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants are still reeling from the departure of their superstar ace as Blake Snell headed down the coast to their most hated rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Despite the pain of losing a star to a rival just already coming off a World Series title, the Giants might have the rare opportunity to fire a counter punch after losing a Cy Young caliber ace.

For Snell, after beginning the first season of his San Francisco tenure with a 9.51 ERA at the end of June and having spent some time on the injured list as well, he put up an absolutely ridiculous 1.13 over the last three months of the year.

He proved himself to still be among the elite pitchers in the game of baseball.

But even though he had a sensational second half. there are red flags. He just turned 32 years old, has a long injury history, and is notorious for not pitching deep into games.

Handing him the five-year, $182 million deal that the defending champs gave him may not have been the best idea.

While aces don't grow on trees, the Giants could have a chance to upgrade from Snell by signing a fellow Cy Young winning superstar in Corbin Burnes of the Baltimore Orioles. Last week, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported that San Francisco would have real interest in Burnes after losing Snell.

Bringing in Burnes after losing Snell would allow the Giants not to skip a beat and potentially even give you significantly more than Snell.

The 2021 National League Cy Young winner was traded last winter from the only team he had ever known, the Milwaukee Brewers, to the Orioles and responded with another stellar season. In 2024, Burnes posted a 2.92 ERA over 194.1 innings pitched in 32 starts.

Burnes is two years younger than Snell, but perhaps most importantly, has no serious injury history.

In his seven-year career, Burnes has never made less than 28 starts in a full season while Snell has made over 30 starts just two times in his nine-year career. At both of their respective bests, Snell probably gets a slight nod. But when you factor in time spent on the injured list, age, and ability to stay in games longer, Burnes is the upgrade in each category.

Whether or not San Francisco seriously pursues him is another question, but if they could actually land Burnes, there's no doubt that he's an overall upgrade from Snell when the whole body of work is accounted for.