03-24-2024 MLB Preview - Flipbook - Page 6
MLB ’24
Sunday, March 24, 2024 6
SEASON PREVIEW COVER STORY
Burnes
from Page 5
that summer, Burnes proved to professional scouts — and himself — that he
belonged.
“It opened eyes,” Nicholson said. “When
you have a good summer like Corbin did,
you go back knowing you can compete
against anyone in the country.”
That summer was the end of Burnes’
underdog story.
His stellar junior season — 8-2 with a
2.48 ERA to lead the Gaels to their first
conference title in program history —
made him a legitimate prospect for the
2016 MLB draft. He went from throwing
high-80s mph as a freshman to mid-90s
and touching 97 mph as a junior, a product of gaining about five inches of height
and sharpening his mechanics throughout
his college career. He was one strike away
from a no-hitter against the University
of San Diego and struck out eight against
soon-to-be College World Series champion
Coastal Carolina in the NCAA regionals.
The Brewers selected him in the fourth
round, and it took him just two years to
make his MLB debut as he dominated the
minor leagues. It seemed as if his big league
career would be smooth sailing, too. He
went 7-0 with a 2.61 ERA as a reliever to
end the 2018 season.
Then he faced a harsh reality in 2019.
“I was mentally tough enough to get to
the big leagues,” Burnes said, “but not stay
in the big leagues.”
A new mindset
The most important part of Burnes’ day
is when he makes his bed in the morning.
That’s because it’s the first thing he does.
That was one of the first changes Burnes
implemented after he began to rewire his
brain near the end of the 2019 season.
Entering the year, he was a top 100 prospect expected to take the next step as a
major league starter, but he got lit up early
— 11 home runs and a 10.70 ERA in four
starts — and couldn’t climb his way out of
the quicksand. He bounced between the
majors and Triple-A, where he had an 8.46
ERA, and was sent to the Brewers’ pitching
lab in August to figure out what was wrong.
But the problem wasn’t physical. His
stuff was the same as in 2018. His mechanics were mostly clean. His diet and exercise
regimen were strong.
“I was struggling,” Burnes said. “I was
open to trying anything.”
Burnes’ agent at the time put him in
contact with Brian Cain, a mental performance coach who trained under world-renownedsportspsychologistKenRavizza,to
help get the pitcher back on track. They set
routines, worked through a mental training
program used by Navy SEALs and framed
his mind to focus solely on what he can
control. More than four years later, Burnes
still works with Cain and speaks with him
on the phone to go over every start.
The simple act of making his bed sets
Burnes on the right path — “starting his
day with a win,” Cain said. It’s the first on
a long checklist for his morning routine,
which includes brushing his teeth, eating
breakfast, reading “The Daily Stoic” philosophy book and listening to “The Daily
Dad” podcast while drinking coffee. Then
he spends the rest of his morning with his
son — “dad time, the most fun part of the
day” — before going to work, changing into
his uniform and going from “dad mode to
baseball mode.”
At the field, Burnes has detailed routines
for his pregame schedule, catch play, bullpens and workouts. Before every batter,
he stands behind the rubber, looks at the
wire behind home plate and takes a deep
breath. He journals about each start, calculating the percentage of his pitches that he
executed regardless of result. At night, he
goes through a meditation routine before
falling asleep. Then he wakes up, makes his
bed and does it all over again.
“He has 120 hours between starts,” said
Cain, who has also worked with Cy Young
Award winners David Price, Jake Arrieta
and Trevor Bauer, UFC legend Georges
St-Pierre and Heisman Trophy-winning
quarterback Kyler Murray. “We have
detailed where every one of those hours
go, there’s no guesswork. And it works.”
Once Burnes focused on his process,
the results quickly followed. He dominated during the pandemic-shortened
2020 campaign, striking out 88 batters in
59 ⅔ innings. In 2021, he posted one of the
best seasons from a starting pitcher this
century with a 2.43 ERA, 0.940 WHIP
and mind-boggling 6.88 strikeout-to-walk
ratio en route to winning the NL Cy Young
Award. He’s finished in the top eight of the
award’s voting in four straight seasons. In
that span, no pitcher in the majors with
more than 500 innings has an ERA better
than Burnes’ 2.86 across his 622 ⅓ frames.
Burneslettinggooftheresultsandbecoming process-oriented wasn’t just a mental
change. He stopped trying to be something
he wasn’t — a four-seam pitcher with carry
—andleanedintothewayhenaturallythrew
the baseball. He turned his four-seam fastball with a small cut into a full-blown cutter
—oneofthebestinbaseballat94.4mphthat
he now throws 55.4% of the time.
“That first punch in the face at the major
league level can be overwhelming,” Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook said. “But
with Corbin, there was the character of
the kid that you knew was going to shine
through.”
When Burnes wakes up March 28 as the
Orioles’ opening day starter, he won’t be
worrying about the 45,000 fans at Camden
Yards and the pressure of performing for
them. He’s just going to make his bed.
“Maybe it’s the right way to do it, maybe
it’s not,” Burnes said of his regimented way
of life. “But I know at the end of my day, my
season, my career, I did everything I could.”
Ace in the hole
Drew French couldn’t sleep the night
he found out.
His phone was “blowing up” with texts
from friends and family — celebratory GIFs
and pictures of ace playing cards.
In his first season as Baltimore’s pitching coach, French will be helping guide
perhaps one of the best 10 pitchers to ever
don an Orioles uniform.
“The possibilities are endless,” French
said. “He is everything that you would
expect out of a No. 1 pitcher.”
French wasn’t the only one. Orioles
executive vice president and general
manager Mike Elias, who executed the
trade by sending top 100 prospects DL
Hall and Joey Ortiz to the Brewers, said
Burnes “changes the whole complexion
of our team.” Manager Brandon Hyde
recalled how Burnes threw eight shutout
innings against his Orioles last year, touting
his “impressive” arsenal.
When Burnes was traded, Danny
Coulombe was the only player on the
Orioles’ 40-man roster who once shared a
uniform with the right-hander. Coulombe
spent part of his 2019 season in Triple-A
with the Brewers and witnessed a piece
of the most challenging year of Burnes’
career. Even then, Coulombe recognized
the potential his teammate possessed.
“He was working through a lot that
year,” Coulombe said. “But we knew how
good he was.”
James McCann, more than anyone in
the Orioles’ clubhouse, knows how a Cy
Young Award winner is supposed to act,
The Orioles’ backup catcher has worked
with six pitchers who have won the award
at some point in their career — a number
that will grow in 2024 when McCann first
catches Burnes.
“There’s a lot of similarities to other Cy
Young-caliber pitchers that I’ve caught,”
McCann said. “His attention to detail
and his knowledge of what he does well
and what he has to do to have success is
top-notch.”
Despite his excitement, Elias doesn’t
want to put more on Burnes’ plate than
already exists.
“The weight of the world is not on his
shoulders,” Elias said.
However, Burnes isn’t scared of the pressure he will face this year — pitching for a
new team, in a different division and in a
contract year with potentially hundreds
of millions of dollars on the line. To him,
as Cain would say, “pressure is a privilege.”
And just like he did when he first cracked
the varsity lineup in high school or when
he got a late invite to the Cape or when the
Brewers gave him another shot in 2020,
Burnes isn’t hiding from a challenge.
“If you give me the chance,” Burnes said,
“I’m going to run with it.”
Once Burnes focused on his process, the results quickly followed. He dominated during the pandemic-shortened 2020
campaign, striking out 88 batters in 59 2/3 innings. In 2021, he posted one of the best seasons from a starting pitcher
this century with a 2.43 ERA, 0.940 WHIP and mind-boggling 6.88 strikeout-to-walk ratio en route to winning the NL
Cy Young Award. He’s finished in the top eight of the award’s voting in four straight seasons. In that span, no pitcher
in the majors with more than 500 innings has an ERA better than Burnes’ 2.86 across his 622 1/3 frames.