Washington Nationals: Patrick Corbin’s path to D.C.
As the newest high-profile member of the Washington Nationals, let’s get to know Patrick Corbin and his career in the MLB thus far.
As Washington Nationals home games enter the late innings, we typically don’t get to see what goes on in Chase Field in Arizona. So you can be forgiven for not knowing all that much about new signing Patrick Corbin.
Whether work the next morning means an early night or just the lack of interest in watching the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres duke it out at night, many Nationals fans may have never watched Corbin pitch outside of his five outings against the Nats.
After all, the fans are not to blame. The Diamondbacks were not good during Corbin’s tenure. In Corbin’s seven years in Phoenix, his teams have finished with 83 or more wins just once back in 2017.
Despite his team making the playoffs that year, Corbin did not throw a single pitch in October due to coach’s’ decision. He likely would have started Game 4 of the NLDS, but the Diamondbacks were swept in three games by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Without much national recognition before his breakout season, it’s fair to say not many people outside of Arizona knew his name. However, now he can become a household name in D.C. as the third piece of a star-studded pitching rotation.
Before we see Corbin whiffing New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in Nats Park this upcoming season, it’s only right that we look through his career and see how he ended up here. In this piece, we will follow Corbin’s Major League journey from the draft to his time with the Diamondbacks, and all the way through to his Cy Young-caliber 2018 season.
The Draft, the Trade, and the Opportunity
The Los Angeles Angels did not know it at the time, but they knocked their 2009 draft out of the park. They drafted Patrick Corbin with the 80th overall selection and some guy named Mike Trout earlier with the 25th pick.
However, Corbin’s stay in LA was not long. A year later, the Angles included him in a trade to acquire Dan Haren from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the middle of the 2010 season. At the time of the trade, Corbin pitched for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the Angles class A advanced team at the time.
Currently, the Quakes are part of the Dodgers’ farm system. Prominent names the Quakes have fielded include Trout, Walker Buehler, Cody Bellinger, Yasiel Puig, Corey Seager, and the Nationals’ own Howie Kendrick.
In 2012, Corbin got an invite to Spring Training from the Diamondbacks. He pitched well enough to get called up at the end of April.
In his first start, Corbin was one out away from a quality start and one pitch away from 100. He recorded six strikeouts and earned the pitchers win. As they say, the rest is history.
The Tommy John Surgery
Coming off of a great 2013 season in which he earned an all-star bid, Patrick Corbin suffered damage to his ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in Spring Training of 2014.
Corbin looked to build on 3.41 ERA over 200 innings the previous year, but his injury forced him to miss the entire 2014 season and the first half of the 2015 season after undergoing the Tommy John procedure.
It is not an uncommon event for the Nationals to employ recipients of TJ surgery. Stephen Strasburg infamously had the surgery in 2010. Most recently for the Nats, Joe Ross needed the operation in the summer of 2017 and returned towards the end of last season.
Other notable Nationals pitchers to have the surgery include Jordan Zimmermann, Erick Fedde, Shawn Kelley, Sammy Solis, and the recently acquired Trevor Rosenthal.
Corbin came back strong in 2015, pitching to a 3.60 ERA in 16 starts, adding 0.6 strikeouts per nine innings compared to his 2013 season. It took a few down years in 2016 and 2017 for Corbin to completely recover his 2013 form. When he put it all together, it turned into something special.
The Breakout
In 2018, Patrick Corbin put his 2013 year to shame by setting career-best marks in games started with 33, ERA at 3.15, FIP at 2.47, an 11.1 K/9, WHIP of 1.050, and WAR at 6.3.
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His efforts garnered a second trip to an All-Star game, coincidentally in his new stomping grounds. He finished fifth in the National League Cy Young voting behind his new teammate Max Scherzer, his old rival Kyle Freeland, and his new rivals Jacob deGrom and Aaron Nola.
Because of his success, Corbin was a hot commodity on the free agent market this offseason. Mike Rizzo and the Nationals front office quickly capitalized on this opportunity. Corbin and the Nats agreed to six-year, $140 million dollar contract in December.
Corbin will join an already loaded Nationals pitching staff. That is one reason Corbin made the decision to sign with the Nats.
“Just watching [Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg] compete out there, that’s a big thing. It’s going to be fun to learn from these guys. I’m always willing to learn and try to get better,” said Corbin in his introductory press conference.
Next. Looking ahead at the Nats' 2019/20 FAs. dark
At just 29 years of age, there is a lot more of Patrick Corbin’s story to be told. For at least the next six years, the backdrop will be a sea of red, white, and blue in southeast Washington D.C.