Nationals Sign Free Agent Pitcher Patrick Corbin

The Major League Baseball free agent market is very light where starting pitchers are concerned. Therefore, Arizona Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin was the most sought after pitcher on the market. He had a breakthrough campaign in 2018. He had an earned run average of 3.15 and 246 strikeouts. Those were the best numbers that he had put up in his career. He also made the All-Star team for the second time in his career and finished fifth in the Cy Young Award voting. The Washington Nationals liked what they saw from Corbin and offered him a contract worth $140 million for six years. The large value and length of the deal definitely surprised many fans and members of the media.

Corbin has some red flags that prevented some teams from being willing to offer a contract that was six years in length. For example, Corbin pitched exactly 200 innings in 2018. That is a very good total these days. The problem is that is only the second time in Corbin’s career that he has been able to reach the 200 innings threshold. The other time was five years ago in 2013. Also, he is only two years removed from having a terrible season in 2016 when he had an earned run average of 5.15. Therefore, his career has been anything but consistently excellent. There is no doubt that the Nationals are taking a huge risk with this contract that could blow up in their faces.

The high price Corbin commanded on the free agent market speaks volumes about the lack of good starting pitchers that are available. Houston Astros starter and 2015 Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel is also a free agent. He is a good pitcher who can definitely improve the staff of any team who signs him. However, he had injury problems in both 2016 and 2017 that prevented him from pitching anywhere close to 200 innings. Therefore, it would be very risky to give him a long contract.

The Nationals obviously wanted to make a big move to improve their team after finishing second in the National League East to the Atlanta Braves. The addition of Corbin solidifies their rotation to a certain extent. This is assuming that Corbin can duplicate the numbers that he put up in 2018. There are many people who feel that Corbin was a one-year wonder. Only time will tell if that is the case.