Superstar Ace Leaves Baltimore Orioles as Top Five One-and-Done Player

The Baltimore Orioles have a good history of getting quality seasons out of players that were with them for just one season.

Jul 4, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Corbin Burnes (39) pitches to the Seattle Mariners during the first inning at T-Mobile Park. / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

When the Baltimore Orioles traded for pitcher Corbin Burnes last offseason, they hoped they knew what they were getting in the 2021 Cy Young winner. Turns out, Baltimore was right.

The Orioles got the ace that they needed to help keep their rotation moving forward, and Burnes’ veteran presence became even more important as three young pitchers suffered elbow injuries that ended their seasons.

The Orioles also knew that there was risk involved in trading for Burnes, who had one year left of team control before he could become a free agent.

Baltimore wanted to keep him but burns ultimately left the Orioles this weekend for a six-year, $210 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But you can't say the Orioles didn't get their money’s worth for one season — and not just because of the win-loss record.

The Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich did the digging and found that, by bWAR (Baseball Reference’s wins above replacement), the 30-year-old right-hander had the fifth-highest of any Orioles player that spent just one season with the franchise.

The best one-and-done players in Orioles history, ranked by bWAR:

1. Reggie Jackson, 5.3 (1976)
2. Nelson Cruz, 4.5 (2014)
3. Kevin Brown, 4.3 (1995)
4. Mike Torrez, 3.5 (1975)
5. Corbin Burnes, 3.4 (2024)

— Matt Weyrich (@ByMattWeyrich) December 28, 2024

The top player is one that many forget played for the Orioles — Hall-of-Fame slugger Reggie Jackson.

In 1975, the superstar was closing in on free agency, which in baseball was in its early days of use. Athletics owner Charlie Finley didn’t want to pay the three-year, $600,000 deal Jackson was seeking so he traded him.

Baltimore sent Don Baylor, Mike Torrez, and Paul Mitchell to the Athletics for Jackson and another player. Torrez is No. 4 on the bWAR list.

Jackson reportedly wasn’t happy about the trade and sat out four weeks before he finally joined the team in May. Still, he slashed .277/.351/.502/.853 with 27 home runs, 91 RBI and a career-best stolen bases before he signed with the New York Yankees as a free agent.

Burnes leaves the O’s after one great season, as he went 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA and helped Baltimore make the playoffs for the second straight year. With an injury-riddled rotation behind him, he took the ball every turn and had 181 strikeouts and 48 walks in 194.1 innings.

He was also named the starter for the American League in the All-Star Game and finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting.

To date, the only free-agent starter the Orioles have signed is pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, one of the most accomplished pitchers in Japanese baseball history. But at 35 years old, he’s not seen as an ace at the MLB level.

Without him, the Orioles will have to set their attention on a free-agent market filled with second-tier options led by Jack Flaherty, a former Orioles pitcher.