On December 11, 1991, Burba was traded by the Seattle Mariners with Mike Jackson and Bill Swift to the San Francisco Giants for Kevin Mitchell, Mike Remlinger, and minor league prospect Joshua Knox. His finest season with San Francisco was in 1993. He was 10–3 and posted a 4.23 ERA. On July 21, 1995, he was traded by the San Francisco Giants with Darren Lewis and Mark Portugal to the Cincinnati Reds for Ricky Pickett, John Roper, Deion Sanders, Scott Service, and David McCarty. In 1996, Burba was 11–13 and posted an ERA of 3.83. He also hit two home runs as a batter. The next year, he again won 11 games to 10 losses but saw his strikeout numbers drop and his ERA rose by almost a full run. Before the start of the 1998 season when he was tabbed as the opening day pitcher for the Reds, the Indians acquired him for prospect Sean Casey, looking for someone to fill the void left by Orel Hershiser. He filled in nicely, going 15–10 in 1998, 15–9 in 1999, and 16–6 in 2000. He battled injuries throughout the 2001 season, and went 10–10 with an ERA of 6.21. That off-season, Burba followed GM John Hart to the Texas Rangers. He was later placed on waivers and ended up back in Cleveland to finish the season. After the year. Burba signed a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. On September 2, 2004, he was traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the San Francisco Giants for minor leaguer Josh Habel. By the 1998 season, his pitching repertoire included the fastball, splitter, slider, curveball, and changeup.
End of career
After filing for free agency from the Giants on October 29, 2004, Dave hooked up with the Houston Astros on a minor league deal on March 29, 2005. He spent the entire season in the minor leagues. He tried again in the 2006 season by signing a minor league deal with the Mariners on January 27, 2006. However, the Mariners released him on March 24, 2006. His final game in the majors was on September 19, 2004. Burba became pitching coach of the Tri-City Dust Devils for the 2011 season, the class-A team of the Colorado Rockies. He was also the pitching coach for the Modesto Nuts, and is currently pitching coach for the Lancaster JetHawks, in the Rockies farm system.
