The 2025 MLB season has already been an interesting one for a lot of reasons. The AL Central has 4 teams that look like contenders right now, the Atlanta Braves were dead in the water after a slow start, but are now surging and will welcome back superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. in the very near future as well. Javier Báez is officially back to being a really good player for the Detroit Tigers. Even Patrick Corbin is back to being a really solid starting pitcher again at the big league level, just like everyone expected. Wait...what?
You better believe you just read that last sentence correctly. Remember back in December of 2018, when the Washington Nationals inked free agent lefty Patrick Corbin to a 6-year, $140 million deal, beating out the New York Yankees to secure his services?
Remember when Corbin was the third ace in that 2019 rotation behind Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, and was worth 5.1 WAR in what was easily the best season of his career? Remember when Corbin pitched 3 scoreless innings in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, helping the franchise win it's first World Series title?
Of course you do. Surely, you also remember when he was the worst pitcher in the sport by a mile over the next 5 seasons, and why everyone was so ready to say goodbye when it came time. Well, despite everyone believing that his best days were behind him, Corbin is showing that he has a little bit left in the tank, and perhaps all he needed was some legitimate defense behind him and some coaching.
Following his latest performance in which he struck out 9 hitters over 6.0 innings, Corbin lowered his ERA to 3.35 for the Texas Rangers, posting a 3-2 record in 7 starts since moving out to the Lone Star state. I will say this, if you look beyond his surface numbers, it appears pretty likely that Corbin is due for some pretty major regression, as his 1.301 WHIP isn't pretty, and neither is the fact that he's already allowed 6 homers in just 7 starts.
Perhaps most telling is that his 4.75 FIP indicates he's been a below-average pitcher, and eclipses his career mark of 4.61 over his time in Washington. Nonetheless, Corbin has been a fantastic injury replacement at the bottom of the rotation for a team that has sorely needed him to this point. After I was quick to warn Rangers fans about the Patrick Corbin experience after he signed with them, he has done nothing but make me eat my words to this point, but alas, it is a marathon, and not a sprint.
I know everyone wants to pour on to the misery since our beloved Washington Nationals are not playing great baseball at the moment, losing 8 of their last 10 games, but from what I can tell, this can't be sustained. While it's completely acceptable to be upset at the Nationals given their latest efforts, and the fact that they only got 1 good season from Corbin out of 6, I have a pretty good feeling that this won't last, and he will look a lot closer to the guy we came to know in the next couple weeks.
We saw over the course of his tenure in DC that he was capable of stringing some good starts together, only to inevitably have the 8-run meltdown start where he fails to make it past the third inning. He hasn't had one of those yet, and while I am not wishing for him to do poorly by any means, I won't be surprised when it happens.
What do you think of the "resurgence" of Patrick Corbin? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.