Baltimore Orioles Must Sign Corbin Burnes As Pitching Dominoes Fall

The Baltimore Orioles are seeing pitching targets come off the board rapidly as Corbin Burnes remains available to re-sign.

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The way the starting pitching market has played out thus far has been nowhere near ideal for the Baltimore Orioles.

With the top name available on the market coming from the Orioles in Cy Young ace Corbin Burnes, seeing what the guys a notch or two below him got was going to be key towards determining how difficult it would be to retain Burnes.

As the market started to play out early with potential replacement Blake Snell signing a five-year, $182 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, it wasn't looking great.

But upon the arrival of the Winter Meetings this week — always associated with the biggest names signing their deals — things got even worse for Baltimore on Tuesday evening.

Another possibility if they did not keep Burnes was Atlanta Braves lefty Max Fried, but instead of winding up with the O's, Fried is reported to have agreed to an eight-year mega deal with the division rival New York Yankees for $218 million.

With two of the big three now gone and any hope outside of Burnes in free agency in terms of a true ace dashed, the urgency is ramped up on the Orioles to pony up the cash to get him to stick around.

Even an ideal 'backup' type option came off the board shortly after Fried in Texas Rangers veteran Nathan Eovaldi, who is reported to be staying with Texas on a three-year, $75 million deal.

As dominoes begin to fall and more names disappear from the market, the pressure falls to Baltimore. Burnes' contract is going to top every one that's been agreed to already. While Fried's and Eovaldi's deals absolutely make it tougher to keep Burnes, they also make it that much more critical.

New ownership has been adamant about the fact they are ready to spend in order to assemble a roster that can not just keep the Orioles competitive, but put them in a spot where they can make a real playoff run for the first time in a decade.

This is the first real test as to how serious they are about that claim and about trying to take the next step towards championship contention rather than just being the solid playoff team they've been.

With the numbers going around, it would be tough to fault a real effort that ends up short to an offer that tops say $250 million, but if Baltimore wants to sell to its fans that they are doing everything they can to win, a competitive and real effort to keep Burnes must be made.