Diamondbacks right-hander Corbin Burnes is set to rejoin the club early next week, manager Torey Lovullo hinted to reporters, including Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports. Burnes has not pitched in the Majors since June of last year due to Tommy John surgery and, more recently, a teres major strain. Per Lovullo, the team may opt for a bullpen game in Monday’s series opener against the Royals. Burnes will get the start on Tuesday and is expected to throw around 60 pitches.

Burnes, 31, signed a six-year, $210MM free agent deal with Arizona entering the 2025 season. He delivered on that pact in his first 11 starts with the team. In 64 1/3 innings, Burnes pitched to a 2.66 ERA and induced ground balls at a 50.3% clip that was well above average. His 9.8% walk rate was a bit up from 2024, but he held serve on strikeouts and continued to keep the ball in the park as he has done throughout his career.

Burnes underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2025. Pitchers usually take 12-14 months to recover from that procedure. For his part, Burnes was hoping to make it back by this year’s All-Star Break until the teres major strain pushed back his timeline to September. He tossed two innings in a Triple-A start on August 29th, which was his only rehab appearance to date.

Evidently, the team is content to bypass further rehab starts to get Burnes back in the big league rotation as soon as possible. Including Tuesday, he’ll be in line to make four starts before the end of the regular season. If Burnes can build up to the 5-6 inning range by the last of those starts, the D-backs should be able to count on him for a full starter’s workload in the playoffs. The team has an open 40-man roster spot, so they’ll only need to make an active roster move to activate Burnes.

Entering play tonight, the Snakes are sitting on a 74-67 record. They hold a half-game advantage over the Padres for the final NL Wild Card spot. The rotation will benefit greatly from Burnes’ return as they look to secure that spot in September. Diamondbacks starters rank in the bottom ten by fWAR this season, though they’ve been somewhat better since the calendar turned to August. Eduardo Rodriguez, the team’s most valuable starter to date, has a 2.97 ERA in his last six starts. Brandon Pfaadt is similarly on a good run.

On the other end of the spectrum, Merrill Kelly has continued his season-long struggles by posting a 5.85 ERA in his last six starts. Rookie Jose Cabrera is the only other starter at the moment. Despite tossing five shutout frames in his big league debut on June 21st, he has an ERA over 6.00 in 19 scattered innings since then. Burnes can’t be expected to pitch like an ace right away, but at the very least, he adds to the rotation’s floor beyond Kelly and Cabrera and gives the club a playoff-caliber starter, assuming he builds up in time.

Burnes’ contract contains a player opt-out after this season. If he’d managed to return by the All-Star Break and post solid results over the second half, he might have had an argument to opt out. With how much time he’s missed, four abbreviated starts won’t be enough for Burnes to pass up on the remaining four years and $140MM of his deal. Burnes and his family also live in Scottsdale, so between that and his lengthy absence, he’s a virtual lock to play out the remainder of his deal. That will lock his upcoming $35MM salary into the Diamondbacks’ 2027 payroll, though they will also gain some payroll space when Zac Gallen hits free agency, as can be seen in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker.

Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images (via Reuters Connect)