It is getting increasingly crowded. The San Francisco Giants of Lee Jung-hoo (26) have once again lost their ace pitcher Corbin Burns (30).먹튀검증
MLB.com , the official website of the U.S. Major League Baseball, said on the 28th (Korea time) that Arizona signed a six-year, 210 million-dollar FA contract with Burns. "This contract includes an opt-out clause after the end of the 2026 season."
Burns has been called the biggest fish in the FA market this year. Burns, who was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the fourth round of the Major League Rookie of the Year in 2016, recorded 60 wins and 36 losses with a 3.19 ERA and 1,051 strikeouts in 903 ⅔ innings in seven seasons since his debut in the big league in 2018. In 2021, he won the National League Cy Young Award with 11 wins and 5 losses with a 2.43 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 167 innings in 28 games when playing for Milwaukee, becoming one of the top ace in the league. This year, he moved to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East, where there are many batter-friendly stadiums, and displayed his skills by recording 15 wins and 9 losses with a 2.92 ERA and 181 strikeouts in 194 ⅓ innings.
Lee Jung-hoo's team, San Francisco, also worked hard to achieve this winter. San Francisco belongs to the National League Western Division, which has outstanding teams including the Los Angeles Dodgers, the winner of the World Series, the San Diego Padres, and the Arizona Diamondbacks, the 89-win team. Compared to its competitors, San Francisco was very weak in starting rotation. According to the U.S. baseball statistics website FanGraph, the starting pitcher WAR (contributing to victory over substitute players) was only 9.4, which was lower than San Diego (13.8), LA Dodgers (10.1), and Arizona (10.1).
On the contrary, Blake Snell, who served as the ace this year, has a sense of crisis toward his archrival LA Dodgers after declaring the opt-out. With the addition of Snell, the Dodgers have built a powerful rotation of Snell, Otani Shohei, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Glassnow. San Diego, a de facto wild-card competitor, has a solid three starters, leading to Dylan Shees, Michael King, and Darvish Yu, while Arizona has a competitive four starters, Burns-Jack Gallen, Meryl Kelly, and Jordan Montgomery.
It is all the more regrettable considering that San Francisco has been shortlisted for Burns. NBC Sports Bay Area said, "San Francisco was considered one of the two shortlisted teams to recruit Burns along with the Toronto Blue Jays. San Francisco also proposed it, but soon their patience ran out," and added, "San Francisco and Toronto offered more money (than Arizona), but Arizona's stock price affected."
Burns wanted a salary higher than San Francisco's offer. According to MLB.com 's Mark Feinsand, Burns wanted at least $245 million. As California is the taxiest state in the U.S., he apparently wanted more substantial money. However, San Francisco felt uncomfortable about paying the 30-year-old higher salary. NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Alex Pavlovich posted the news on his SNS account that it was the worst outcome that could happen to San Francisco.
Naturally, Lee's chances for fall baseball also declined. This year, the San Francisco Giants ranked fourth in the National League West with 80 wins and 82 losses, realizing that Lee Jung-hoo was out for the season due to his early injury and limited depth and talent.
The figure has been on a downward spiral since the team won the World Series in 2014. He made good progress to the Division Series in 2016 and 2021, but he moved to the bottom ranks only to be glistening. As a result, he has repeatedly suffered hardships in recruiting superstars such as Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As the team ranked fourth this year, it sacked Farhan Zaidi, who recruited Lee Jung-hoo, and hired Buster Posey, a legendary player of the team. Under Posey's presidency, San Francisco seemed to have changed after signing Willy Adames, a seven-year, 182 million-dollar contract for free agent. However, the team failed to recruit a superstar again, moving one step further away from advancing to the postseason.