Sometimes it’s hard to understand the impact a coaching staff might have. These are, after all, major league players and their talents are among the best in their sport.

So, what can a coach really do?

The fact that Patrick Corbin has started two games for the Rangers, hasn’t lost a game yet, and has an ERA under four speaks volumes for the Rangers pitching coach. Rangers fans always knew Mike Maddux was elite. We saw that first-hand when he was with the team the first time. 

Maddux became the Rangers pitching coach in 2009. The year before, 2008, the Rangers team ERA was 5.37. From 2000 to 2008, it had been the worst in the American League for that period, 5.14.

In his second year as the Rangers pitching coach, the team ERA dropped almost a run per game. That was the first year the Rangers were relevant in a long, long time, surprising the baseball world by going to the World Series.

Maddux left the Rangers in 2015, after Jeff Banister’s first season. During his first stint with the Rangers, Texas won the third-most games in the American League, had a team ERA of 4.04, with four consecutive years under 4.00.

The franchise wandered aimlessly after that, enduring the end of the Jon Daniels era with six consecutive losing seasons until Chris Young took over and hired Bruce Bochy, who brought Mike Maddux back for the 2023 season. We all know what happened then. 

Last year wasn’t the pitching, it was the bats that let down the Rangers.

This year, the pitching has been phenomenal. The team has tossed three shutouts and is 5-0 in one-run games, a sign that the pitching is holding up. 

But Mike Maddux’s best work has to be what is happening with Patrick Corbin. Corbin was easily the worst pitching in baseball the past five seasons, leading baseball in losses in three of these five years, most earned runs allowed in three, and most hits allowed in three of the five. He was so bad, nobody signed him when his contract with the Nationals expired, and the only reason the Rangers finally picked him up at the end of spring training was due to injuries and the fact that a twelve-year veteran was willing to pitch for slightly over the major league minimum.

He went from a six-year deal with Washington where he was making $25 million per year to a one-year deal with the Rangers for $1.1 million. 

That’s a huge pay cut. That will tell you how little the league thought of Patrick Corbin. And that will tell you how good of a pitching coach Mike Maddux is. 

For Patrick Corbin to be 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA after two games is a miracle.

*****