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Corbin Burnes says relationship with Brewers is 'definitely hurt' after team blamed him for missing playoffs in hearing

Few moments crystallize the fact that Major League Baseball is a business for a player more than their first arbitration hearing, and Corbin Burnes and the Milwaukee Brewers just demonstrated why.

Throughout the early days of a player's professional career, he and a team will usually be aligned with their goals. The team supports the player from his drafting to his MLB debut so he can get to the majors and win ballgames.

That relationship takes a hard turn two or three years into a players career thanks to the arbitration process, in which the player and team each submit an amount of money they think the player deserves based on his past performance. The team, which to that point will have done all it can to prop up the player, will suddenly have a legion of analysts devoted to arguing he actually isn't that good, that he actually shouldn't be paid that much.

It's supposed to a business, but it can feel personal for players. The sides often settle before reaching a hearing partially because of how uncomfortable that hearing can be. That's why Brewers fans might have been a little worried when their team took Burnes, the 2021 NL Cy Young winner, to a hearing rather than settle.

The good news is the Brewers at least won, with the arbitrator agreeing with their proposed 2023 salary of $10.01 million rather than Burnes' number of $10.75 million, but it sure sounds like they went about arguing their case in the most brutal way possible.

As Burnes explained in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel video above, the team claimed he was a major reason why they didn't make the postseason last year:

"They're trying to do what they can to win the hearing, but I think there were other ways they could have gone about it and probably been a little more respectful with how they went about it. At the end of the day here we are. They obviously won it.

"There's no denying that the relationship is definitely hurt from what transpired over the last couple weeks. There's no really no way getting around that. Obviously we're professionals and we're going to out there and do our job, keep doing what I can every fifth day that I go out there. But with some of the things that are said, for instance. basically putting me in the forefront of why we didn't make it to the postseason last year. That's something that probably doesn't need be said. We can go about a hearing without having to do that."

The Brewers finished second in the NL Central last season with a record of 86-76 and came in just one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the final wild-card spot.

That year, Burnes followed up his Cy Young season with another strong campaign, posting a 2.94 ERA in 202.0 innings across 33 starts with an NL-best 243 strikeouts, a 3.14 FIP and a 0.965 WHIP. He didn't hit the injured list once and finished only behind shortstop Willy Adames in WAR as calculated by Baseball Reference.

For many pitchers, including everyone on the 2022 Brewers, that is a career season, but it apparently wasn't enough for Milwaukee. A team's best player being blamed for its shortcomings is about as common an argument you see in sports bars and online forums, but it's wild to hear a team has allegedly gone as far as weaponizing it in a formal setting.

If this really does hurt Burnes' relationship with the team permanently, it's hard to see it manifesting on the field, but it could be a factor in future attempts to keep him in Milwaukee long-term. Then again, with the money the 28-year-old Burnes is likely to command when he hits free agency in 2025, maybe the team is already aware a good relationship won't help them much.