PHOENIX – Scott Boras has been saying it for a while now: Every team in Major League Baseball has the finances to compete in the free agent market for the right player. Exhibit A this week was the Arizona Diamondbacks formally announcing the signing of right-hander Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million contract.
The financial risk is worth the reward, at least that’s what Boras, the game’s most high-profile agent, convinced the Diamondbacks.
“Talent at this level is always an asset of a franchise,” Boras said in an interview session this week at Chase Field. “You want to do great things and from a business standpoint you always want to do something to enhance franchise value and improve the performance of your team.”
For the D-backs, only two seasons removed from winning the National League pennant, where there’s a will, there was a way. Boras came to managing general partner Ken Kendrick with a player who lives in Arizona and wants to play in Arizona. Burnes was willing to take a little less money to make that happen.
Boras acknowledged Wednesday the deal includes an opt-out for Burnes after the second season and $75 million in deferred money if he stays for the full six seasons — $11 million to be paid at the end of the deal in 2030 and the remaining $64 million from 2031 to 2036, according to contract figures amassed by Spotrac.
The opt-out after two seasons was important to Burnes, the NL Cy Young Award winner in 2021 with the Milwaukee Brewers, who at 30 has only pitched 903 2/3 innings and hasn’t had an arm injury. He pitched last season with the Baltimore Orioles, going 15-9 with a 2.92 earned run average.
“We needed that concession so we could see where the pitching market would be in a couple of years,” Boras said.
The deferred money was important to Kendrick.
“From Ken’s point of view, he said, ‘This is what we need to do from our end.’ And Corbin certainly agreed with that,” Boras added.
The D-backs as currently constructed have their own small window trying to keep up with the carnivorous defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the highly competitive NL West. The Dodgers have been gobbling up free agents like crazy this offseason, adding Japanese hurler Roki Sasaki on Friday.
The Dodgers started with Boras client pitcher Blake Snell for five years, $182 million and re-signed outfielder Teoscar Hernandez for three years, $66 million, plus outfielder Tommy Edman for five years, $74 million, and haven’t stopped. Multiple reports Sunday say they have signed closer Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 million deal.
Boras isn’t finished, either. He shopped Juan Soto landing him with the New York Mets for 15 years, $765 million, and still has first baseman Pete Alonso and third baseman Alex Bregman on the market.
The D-backs had already allowed first baseman Christian Walker and designated hitter Joc Pederson to depart via free agency. Closer Paul Sewald and outfielder Randal Grichuk aren’t expected back. They have shopped pitcher Jordan Montgomery and his $22.5 million contract for this season, thus far to no avail.
With Burnes’ $31.7 million for this season, they already have a record franchise high of $177.2 million in player allocations and an anticipated $185.9 million payroll once everybody signs. For tax purposes, they’re at $203.5 million, 11th in MLB, but fourth in spending in their own division.
“We are going to compete and obviously the competition is intense in our division,” Kendrick said in an interview. “I think we have the most competitive division in baseball right now.”
Spending wise in the NL West, the Dodgers lead the league with $353.3 million payroll for tax purposes at this point. The San Diego Padres at $233.5 million are fifth. The San Francisco Giants are ninth at $205.3 million, just ahead of the Atlanta Braves and the D-backs.
Only the Colorado Rockies, a distant 20th at $129.9 million, have decided not to join in the spending.
“Look at the way the teams are constructed,” Kendrick said. “There’s probably no division where four of the five teams are that competitive.”
Peeling it away a little, the Dodgers are the Dodgers. The Padres are in ownership turmoil and thus far have made no significant additions this offseason despite losing to the Dodgers in a five-game, NL Division Series this past October.
The Giants under the new management of Buster Posey, signed free agent shortstop Willy Adames to a club-record seven-year, $182 million deal and veteran right-hander Justin Verlander for one year at $15 million, but otherwise have been stopped cold missing out on Burnes and Sasaki. The Giants have made the playoffs just one since 2016 and that’s hurt their pursuit of free agents, Posey said.
“I think the obvious answer is, we have to take care of business on the field going forward, right?” he told a local San Francisco radio station this week.
Meanwhile, the D-backs dropped the 2023 World Series to the Texas Rangers in five games and in 2024 lost a three-way tie-breaker to the Mets and Braves missing the playoffs on the final day of the season despite winning 89 games.
They had an increase in attendance at Chase Field of 380,694 last season over 2023, the highest in MLB, and without citing a figure, their local revenues were the highest in club history, Kendrick said. According to Sportico’s own valuations, the D-backs were 16th in the league at $331 million in local revenues in 2023, up dramatically from $273 million in 2022. The franchise value is $1.49 billion, substantially higher than the $130 million expansion fee Kendrick’s group paid to enter the league in 1998.
The D-backs have always had a practice of investing any profits back into the franchise, and have done so before by signing pitchers Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Eduardo Rodriguez and Montgomery for big money.
Now they have a potential starting rotation that could include Burnes, Rodriguez, Montgomery, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt and Ryan Nelson. It’s an embarrassment of riches.
“If you’re going to win, you’re going to have to invest,” Kendrick said.
That is how the Burnes contract was able to come about and how a mid-level team like the D-backs was able to do it.
(This story has been updated in the 11th paragraph with the Dodgers’ signing of closer Tanner Scott.)
