Desperation, thy name is Patrick Corbin.

After losing Jon Gray to a wrist fracture and Cody Bradford to a sore forearm, and with Tyler Mahle and Jacob deGrom just one pitch away from their seasons ending, the Rangers needed an innings eater. They went with Patrick Corbin, of all people. About all you can count on Corbin for is giving up runs.

This tells you how much faith they have in Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker when they decided to sign the pitcher whose performance for the past six seasons with Washington can, at best, be described as disastrous.

The good news is, no pitcher has made more starts in major league baseball the past four years than Corbin. He averaged 31.5 starts a season. The bad news is, Patrick Corbin averaged making 31.5 starts the past four seasons.

The 35-year-old lefty most recently pitched with Washington where he led baseball in losses in ’21, ’22, and ’23, with 16, 19, and 15. Last year, his loss total fell all the way to 13. To illustrate how “productive” he’s been, not once in those four years was he anywhere near the top in innings pitched. He can start games. He can’t go deep. There are only so many runs a manager is willing to give up.

Patrick Corbin led the league in hits given up in 2022 and last year. And he gave up more earned runs than any pitcher in ’21, ’22, and ’24.

He had a good season in 2019, his first with Washington, but then fell off the edge of the Earth, with five straight years of below average ERA+: 96, 70, 62, 82, and 72 last year.

If the Rangers are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, they might want to put down the bottle of whatever they’re drinking.

They could have signed Kyle Gibson. They could have signed Lance Lynn. But, for a team doing everything it can to stay under the luxury tax threshold, Corbin offered something attractive. It wasn’t his pitching. It was his cost. Just one million dollars. 

If they gave awards for MLB’s worst starting pitcher, it would be Patrick Corbin the past four years running. And running is the apt word he. Teams keep piling up runs off him.

Jon Gray,  come back soon please.

*****

TODAY’S CACTUS LEAGUE GAME: 

Texas vs Seattle, 3:05

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