Corbin Burnes made an early exit from the Diamondbacks’ 3-1 win over the Nationals due to what was described by manager Torey Lovullo as right elbow discomfort. The right-hander had sailed through 4 2/3 shutout innings before allowing a two-out single to CJ Abrams in the top of the fifth, and a clearly upset Burnes then immediately motioned to the home dugout for a quick consultation with team trainers.
Post-game, Lovullo told reporters (including Arizona Sports) that Burnes will get an MRI tomorrow, and won’t join the Diamondbacks on their upcoming road trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati. The pitcher himself also described his health situation to the media, saying his elbow started to gradually tighten up during the outing.
“It just got to the point where the tightness was just too much…didn’t feel like we needed to push any farther. Hopefully we caught it early, hopefully it’s not bad, but we’ll see,” Burnes said.
More details will be known in the aftermath of the MRI, though it seems like Burnes will probably be placed on the 15-day injured list at least as a precaution. This would be the first arm-related IL stint of Burnes’ durable career, as his two previous IL trips were due to Covid-19 (in 2021) and an oblique strain late in the 2020 season that kept him out of the Brewers’ brief playoff run.
After signing a six-year, $210MM free agent deal with his local team this past offseason, Burnes has mostly looked the part of a frontline ace in posting a 2.66 ERA over 64 1/3 innings. However, his secondary metrics tell another story, as Burnes entered today’s start with a more modest 3.99 SIERA. Burnes’ hard-hit ball rate and walk rate are both well below the league average, let alone the strong numbers in both categories that Burnes had posted over his previous seven Major League seasons. Burnes’ whiff rate remains above the league average but also down from his 2024 total.
The right-hander’s signature cutter has been among the best pitches in baseball over the last few years, but Statcast’s Run Value metric indicates that the cutter has gone from a +17 in 2024 to only a +2 in 2025 since batters have been able to square up on the pitch with far more regularity. Both Burnes’ cutter (95.3mph to 94.2mph) and his sinker (97mph to 95.6mph) have lost some velocity from last season to this campaign.
Even with these red flags, the bottom-line results have still been there for Burnes, and he has still been the most consistent member of Arizona’s underwhelming rotation. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored how the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff is again struggling, and undermining the efforts of the team’s powerful lineup. Today’s win bumped the Snakes up to only a 28-31 record, and they are five games behind the Giants for both third place in the NL West and the final NL wild card slot.
Losing Burnes even for a fairly minimal amount of time would severely hamper the Diamondbacks’ chances of making up that ground, let alone making a late run at the Dodgers at the top of the division. Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to return from the 15-day IL this coming week after a mid-May placement due to shoulder inflammation, but if Burnes is also sidelined, Ryne Nelson (who was headed to the bullpen due to E-Rod’s return) will likely be reinserted back into the starting five.