Corbin Burnes trade has 5 major implications for the Phillies

The Brewers and Orioles shook the baseball world this week with a piece of highway robbery that shipped one of the best pitchers on the planet, 2021 NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, to Baltimore in exchange for two prospects.

The prospects are good; infielder Joey Ortiz comes in at No. 63 on MLB Pipeline's Top 100, while lefty DL Hall is highly regarded and has MLB experience. But for a full year of a proven great like Burnes, it's next to nothing.

There are many possible implications for the Philadelphia Phillies, ranging from how the deal shapes the starting pitcher landscape for the rest of the offseason to what it tells us about the Phillies' future plans. Here's a look at five major implications from the deal for the Fightins'.

Are other major Brewers pieces on the market?

It remains unclear if Milwaukee is in the midst of a fire sale or a retooling, as the actions of the ownership and the front office are in contradiction with one another.

First, longtime manager and lifelong Brewers fan Craig Counsell left to lead their biggest rival in Chicago. There are whisperings that he wouldn't have done so unless he perceived a lack of commitment from ownership in Milwaukee toward building a winner. 

Then, Milwaukee was absent from the free agent market and trade circuit all winter until last week, when they signed beloved Phillie Rhys Hoskins. Quietly, against the prevailing media chatter lending inertia to the Cubs and the Cardinals, it seemed as if the perennially underrated Brewers could again take home the NL Central title. 

Then, the Burnes deal; a Cy Young winner in exchange for two non-blue chip prospects. Do the Brewers simply want to to recoup any value they can from their talent, knowing it's all leaving, anyway?

If that's the case, major players like shortstop Wiley Adames, closer Devin Williams, and even newly signed Rhys Hoskins (who has an opt-out after year one of his deal) could be on the market at the trade deadline. In the case of Adames and Williams, they could be on the market now.

Williams is particularly interesting, as after former Milwaukee reliever Josh Hader, who many Phillies fans had their eye on before he signed a record deal with Houston earlier this winter, Williams is perhaps the game's next most dominant reliever. He has a ridiculous 1.89 ERA in 214 big league innings the past five years, and the right-hander would form perhaps the game's best late-inning duo with lefty fireballer José Alvarado.  

His cost is not certain. He certainly doesn't offer the value of Burnes, but he's available for two seasons, while Burnes is a free agent after this season. Still, it's hard to imagine the Brewers getting more for Williams than Burnes.

What about Dylan Cease?

While Phillies fans may be frustrated they didn't land Burnes for the appallingly small haul given up by the Orioles, there could be good news tied to the lopsided nature of that deal. 

Chicago White Sox star Dylan Cease is the other ace-caliber starting pitcher on the market, and his asking price to this point has been seemingly prohibitive. 

The New York Post's Jon Heyman has said the south siders are asking for "the sun and the moon," in talks, including up to four of a team's top 10 prospects. 

Cease is very good, but doesn't quite boast Burnes' track record. If Burnes can be landed for DL Hall and Joey Ortiz, teams now have added negotiating power in prying Cease away from the White Sox. 

What could that look like for the Phillies? If it was on par with the Burnes deal, it would mean a hitter like Aiden Miller or Carlos De La Cruz, and a pitcher like Tommy McCollum. That's it. Even if the Sox asked for slightly more, the Phils should keep an open mind about dealing Griff McGarry or Símon Muzziotti, if it means landing Cease.

That said, no rumors have really connected the Phillies to Cease specifically, and the outcome of the Burnes deal could simply mean that someone with a firmly expressed pitching need like Atlanta, St. Louis, Cincinnati, or even the Dodgers will have less of a struggle in stealing Cease away. 

Tightening market for Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell

Even if the Phillies choose not to be players for Cease, the Burnes deal means that a major team has been removed from the starting pitching sweepstakes.

It's not clear to what degree the Orioles may have been involved in talks with Montgomery or Snell, if at all, before they pulled the trigger on Burnes. But the market for Snell, Montgomery, and even someone like Cody Bellinger is reliant on the domino effect of other moves. No one really did anything (other than the Phillies re-signing Aaron Nola) until the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani. And everything was hung up again until the Dodgers finalized their Yoshinobu Yamamoto deal. 

Burnes is the latest piece to fall into place. Not only is the market for Snell and Montgomery now smaller, but the price may be going down, too. If one of the best pitchers in the game like Burnes can be purchased for two prospects (only one of whom is in MLB Pipeline's Top 100), the trade market might continue to be a more palatable alternative than overpaying for aces with question marks. At least to the extent that their price tag comes down.

And if their price tag comes down, the Phillies have been rumored to be ready to pounce.