Hello, friends.
As I sit down to write this article, not even 24 hours have passed since the news that Corbin Burnes would be signing with his home state team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, apparently spurning more lucrative offers from other teams (reportedly but not definitively including the Orioles) to do so.
This is the toughest blow of the offseason to date, because up until now you could at least imagine that as long as Burnes was out there, the Orioles could improve the way they need to at the top of the rotation. As other names peeled away, Burnes was still out there.