Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Corbin Burnes throws against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning of a spring training baseball game on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Scottsdale at Salt River Fields. (Photo by Anthony Chiu/Cronkite News)
SCOTTSDALE – The Arizona Diamondbacks are fresh off the heels of an 89-win season in which they missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker with an 89-win Mets team.
In a season with 162 games, one game proved to be the difference for the Diamondbacks. The bitter taste of the way last season ended still lingers at the start of spring training.
“We had a great year, but to not play any playoff baseball, that was disappointing,” Corbin Carroll said Wednesday.
The front office responded in December by agreeing to the richest contract in franchise history, a six-year, $210 million deal with former Baltimore Orioles ace Corbin Burnes. In 2024, the right-hander earned All-Star honors and finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting.
The pairing of Burnes with Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen immediately becomes one of the most formidable pitching duos in the league.
Burnes has finished in the top eight in Cy Young voting every season since 2020, and won the award in 2021 while playing for the Brewers. He has a career 3.19 ERA and has thrown 1,051 strikeouts in his seven-season major league career.
“Everyone knows his track record and what he can do,” reliever A.J. Puk said. “It’s cool being around guys like him and just seeing what he does to prepare and how he goes out there and competes.”
From a hitter’s perspective, Carroll is happy that he won’t be facing Burnes anymore. In nine at-bats against him Carroll only has one hit and has struck out three times.
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Corbin Burnes (39) receives encouragement from his teammates before his start against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Scottsdale at Salt River Fields. (Photo by Anthony Chiu/Cronkite News)
“(I’m) really glad he’s on our side, it’s not a fun at bat,” he said. “Really tough on a lefty. Cutter that has a ton of ride and horizontal movement, a change-up that comes up the exact same way and has some late movement, and then a curveball that comes out of that same slot and then just dives off the table.
“So that guy’s got great stuff, he knows how to pitch.”
On the other side of the two-headed snake leading the rotation for the 2025 Diamondbacks is Gallen, whose production took a dip in 2024. He posted only a 3.65 ERA in 148 innings pitched. However, he spent time on the injured list while dealing with a hamstring injury.
Gallen dominated the 2023 season during the Diamondbacks’ World Series run, tossing 210 innings and garnering a 3.47 ERA, while finishing third in NL Cy Young voting. His campaign wasn’t an anomaly. In 2022, he had an even lower ERA (2.54) while pitching 184 innings and finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting.
The new Diamondbacks duo knew each other well before the December signing. They’ve been friends for years, dating back to Burnes’ time in Milwaukee.
“We talked during BP a couple times and just stayed in touch over social media and whatnot,” Gallen said. “(We) have the same agent so just had some correspondence there. So I knew how much he’d love to play here.
“(I’m) glad the front office and him were able to come to a deal and be able to bring him into this culture.”
The two aces are similar in how they can dominate a mound and make opposing hitters look silly, but they also share leadership styles.
“He’s very diligent about his work, I think we’re very similar in a sense that we’re kind of reserved and we kind of keep to ourselves,” Gallen said. “We just get our stuff done and lead by example.”
The pair is projected to combine for 6.3 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, headlines a starting rotation that includes Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt.
Getting acclimated
Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen throws 11 strikeouts in his last start of the 2024 season against the San Francisco Giants. (Photo by Samuel Nute/Cronkite News)
With spring training underway in the Valley now, Burnes and his new teammates are using the Cactus League to get acclimated with each other before the regular season starts March 27.
The new addition made his second spring training appearance Wednesday against the Brewers, the team that drafted him. He threw two innings, giving up three hits and zero runs, while striking out three. The Diamondbacks won 7-1.
“Right now it’s still getting built up,” Burnes said. “Make sure we’re in the zone, commanding pitches, getting consistent.”
Burnes and Gallen have only thrown a combined four innings so far in spring training, but it offers a taste for fans looking forward to the upcoming season competing in one of the most challenging divisions in baseball.
The Diamondbacks will play the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers 13 times in 2025, facing a lineup including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. FanGraphs gives the Dodgers an 83.6% chance to win the NL West division. The Diamondbacks are second highest in the division with 10.0%.
For Arizona to compete for the division and a return to the postseason, pitching needs to improve.
The Diamondbacks gave up the fourth-most earned runs per game in baseball last season with 4.62 per contest. The three worse teams lost more than 100 games.
Adding Burnes should bolster the pitching staff while bringing more depth to a rotation hampered with injuries last season.
“I think we have a lot of depth,” Gallen said. “We had four starters on the IL at one time last year, so it’s not easy to overcome … So in terms of the depth that we’re going to have, it’s going to be huge for us … to be able to have five, six, seven guys that when those guys take the mound and it’s their day to pitch, you have a really good chance to win.”
