The Reds made it official on Saturday: Chase Burns is signed through the 2033 season on a seven-year, $105 million extension. It's the kind of deal that usually gets reserved for established stars, not a 23-year-old who's barely more than a year removed from his big league debut. But that's exactly the bet Cincinnati just made.
Mark Feinsand confirmed the deal is done and locks Burns up through 2033.
The Reds have officially announced their seven-year, $105 million contract extension with Chase Burns that locks him up through the 2033 season.
For context on how fast this has moved: Burns went second overall to the Reds in the 2024 draft out of Wake Forest, signed for a then-record $9.25 million bonus, and didn't even make his MLB debut until June 2025. Now, in his first full big league season, he's an All-Star sitting at 11-1 with a 2.54 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 102.2 innings, armed with a slider that gets talked about like it's already elite and a fastball that averages nearly 98 mph. That's the resume that got Cincinnati to write a nine-figure check before he's even reached arbitration.
MLB Trade Rumors made it official too, confirming the numbers on the Burns extension.
The structure matters here. This deal covers 2027 through 2033, buying out two years of what would've been free agency down the line and giving the Reds cost certainty on their best young arm for the rest of the decade. Reportedly there are no options, no deferrals, no funny business — just a straight seven-year commitment. That's the front office signaling they see Burns as a true cornerstone, not a trade chip to flip for prospects in three years.
It's also historic by franchise standards. This reportedly slots in as the third-largest contract in Reds history, trailing only Joey Votto's 10-year, $225 million extension and Ken Griffey Jr.'s nine-year, $116.5 million deal from back when the Reds were still doing things like trading for Junior. Locking a pitcher up this early, this big, is a departure from how Cincinnati has typically operated — they're usually the team losing homegrown stars to bigger markets, not the team writing the check first.
The bigger picture: this is a small-market club trying to break the cycle before it starts. Instead of watching Burns get expensive in arbitration and then walking in free agency the way so many Reds building blocks have before him, Cincinnati paid up now while the price was still relatively team-friendly for a pitcher performing at this level. If Burns keeps trending toward front-of-rotation ace, this looks like a steal in a few years. If the arm holds up, the Reds just secured the centerpiece of their next competitive window without having to outbid the Dodgers or Yankees for him later.