The Milwaukee Brewers upper management has taken a lot of heat as of late. After botching a series of moves at this year’s trade deadline, players have been opening up to the media. Immediately after the Josh Hader trade, Devin Williams had a very grim interview where his emotions told how he felt. Eric Lauer then pipped in saying that the trade sent a “We’re trying to develop for the future” message. Lorenzo Cain, who was DFA’d earlier in the season, also had some interesting comments regarding lack of respect and how the chemistry was disrupted. Lastly, Corbin Burnes opened up about how the Brewers management has never approached him regarding a contract extension.
Burnes told Brewers beat reporter Adam McCalvy this information when they sat down to discuss the one year anniversary of the Brewers combined no-hitter.
“You would think,” said Burnes, who turns 28 next month. “You would think maybe there would have been some initial talks last offseason, but nothing.”
The Brewers need to aggressively discuss a contract extension with Corbin Burnes immediately following the conclusion of the 2022 season
With 21 games remaining in the regular season and in the midst of a play-off race, now is not the time to start discussing an extension. However, as soon as the season is complete, contract talks should begin for Burnes had some pretty revealing quotes regarding his feelings of not being on a long term deal and the player turnover since 2018.
“For anyone who isn’t on a long-term deal, once you get into your later years of arbitration, anything can happen,” Burnes said. “We saw it with Hader. We might see it this offseason. I don’t know what route the front office is going to take. It’s one of those things you start looking at. You hope you’re here for the long-term — two more years, seven more years, eight more years, 10 more years, whatever it may be — you hope to be in one jersey your entire career. But there’s other things that go into that.
“Who knows what’s going to happen this offseason. Who knows what’s going to happen at the next Trade Deadline. At this point, there’s a couple of guys remaining from our 2018 and ‘19 postseason teams, and it’s like, this could be maybe the last year. Maybe next year is the last year. Maybe we get two more years. We don’t really know. It’s hard to look at it like that but you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
If the Brewers do not begin contract discussions soon, the odds of signing Burnes to a long term deal may slip away from them. Based on these quotes it is clear that he values long term security. He also is already wondering if he will ever get traded similarly with what happened to Josh Hader. Those are not thoughts you want a player to have.
Hopefully Mark Attansio will be willing to open up the check book for Burnes this off-season. It isn’t like the Brewers are afraid of giving long extensions to pitchers. Both Freddy Peralta and Aaron Ashby have scored extensions, although both of those deals have significantly less risk and money involved. A Burnes extension, when he is already a Cy Young award winner and is in his prime years is going to cost a lot.
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