MLB Free Agent Rumors: Top 3 Landing Spots for Corbin Burnes

After another elite ace-like season, Corbin Burnes heads to free agency armed with four straight All-Star appearances, while winning a career-high 15 games with a 2.92 ERA. He'll finish in the Top 8 in Cy Young voting for the fifth consecutive year (he won it in 2021). He's expected to land a contract up to seven years in length, worth something north of $200 million, perhaps approaching $250 million, which likely means the incumbent Baltimore Orioles will be on the outside looking in.

Here are the three most likely landing spots for Burnes this offseason:

New York Mets

They're still trying to replenish their starting rotation after trading away Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in 2023. They filled it nicely in 2024, but that was temporary, as Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana all head into free agency.

MLB Insider and former GM Jim Bowden suggests in The Athletic that the Mets will "focus on starting pitching in free agency and manage to sign both Corbin Burnes and Max Fried."

Boston Red Sox

The BoSox have a rotation of decent starters, but no ace. They need a top dog to take ownership of their starting staff. Burnes could be it. In fact, according to bookies.com, the BoSox are the second favorite to sign Burnes, just a shade behind the Mets.

LA Dodgers

Because... well, why not? Their starting rotation was ravaged this past season, and while a couple of prime arms will hopefully be back in the mix in 2025, Jack Flaherty is also entering free agency, and Clayton Kershaw is undergoing a couple of surgeries this winter, and his availability will once again be limited, if he does indeed return. Could Ohtani return full-time to the rotation in '25? Sure, perhaps.

But there are still a lot of 'ifs' with the LA rotation, and that's one thing that Burnes is not. He's started 32 or more games in each of the last three seasons, and 28 the year before that. If money is no object for the Dodgers (and it usually isn't), they will likely try to bring in Burnes.