Corbin Burnes' 2023 season has not been great so far. The Milwaukee Brewers pitcher has a 3.97 ERA through 56.2 innings, a start that is not all that good for someone who has established themselves as a superstar. By his account, though, this season has not been as bad as people think.

After a blowup start against the Houston Astros in which he allowed four home runs and five earned runs in five innings, Burnes said that he can definitely be better. But he also said that, in the grand scheme of things, he is pleased with what he has done this season.

“I think for the most part, I feel like I've been pretty well,” the Brewers star said. “It's easy to look at results and see where we're at — we give up runs here, we don't give up runs here. For the most part, when I break it down at the end of the day, I'm happy with how the year's gone. Tonight, I was happy with how I threw the ball. Just made four mistakes over the plate and they got hit for homers.”

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Burnes' percentages in strikeouts and home runs are each trending in the wrong directions this season. Batters have fared much better against his signature cutter, which is recording much fewer whiffs than usual. When asked if he's seeing batters take a different approach or if it's something on his end, he said that he and the Brewers pitching staff are mostly “getting what we want with the cutter” and that the issue is location. Putting it over the middle of the plate is obviously not what he has aimed for.

Brutal injury situations to Brandon Woodruff and Wade Miley exacerbates Corbin Burnes' struggles. While he does have time to get things right and the Brewers still look like the team most likely to win the NL Central, things have to change quickly. Milwaukee may soon be in a position where rebuilding is the best way forward rather than trying to make a playoff push. Whether Burnes turns it around could be the decisive factor in the team's short-term future.