The Texas Rangers added some depth to their pitching staff on Tuesday, signing veteran starter Patrick Corbin to a one-year deal with a little more than a million dollars guaranteed.
Texas also placed Jon Gray on the 60-day injured list as he recovers from a wrist injury. Rangers president Chris Young addressed the media after the team made its moves, explaining that Corbin gives the team an innings-eater with the potential to be more.
Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young on the signing of LHP Patrick Corbin pic.twitter.com/MPCEXv3JV8
— Jared Sandler (@JaredSandler) March 18, 2025
“It felt like signing a Patrick Corbin was an opportunity to bring in someone who has really been an innings stabilizer over the last 10 plus years, a veteran player, competitor, by all accounts just a winning personality, someone who’s going to fit in our clubhouse well,” Young said. “And gives us added protection.”
There’s no sugar-coating Corbin’s recent track record. After making two All-Star teams with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he signed a six-year, $140 million free agent contract with the Washington Nationals. He had an outstanding first season (3.25 ERA, 4.7 fWAR), but then his career cratered. He led the National League in losses each year from 2021 to 2023 and has thrown to a 5.62 ERA in 137 starts since 2020.
Young, however, believes there’s reason to be optimistic that Corbin can recover a little bit of his old form.
“We also believe there’s some things we saw in the second half of last year with his performance that indicate he can continue that and be a very serviceable Major League starting pitcher, which we need right now,” he added.
Nathan Eovaldi will lead the Rangers’ rotation in 2025
While Corbin will figure into the back end of the Texas rotation somewhere, Nathan Eovaldi will get the Opening Day nod, the team announced over the weekend.
That makes Eovaldi the seventh pitcher in team history and the first since 2009 to start consecutive Opening Days for the team. He is entering his third season with the Rangers and was an All-Star with the club in 2023, the year Texas captured its first World Series title.
“It’s a huge honor to be able to take the ball in the first game of the season, right?” Eovaldi told MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry. “It’s the first game, and baseball’s back. It’s what we work for the entire offseason, Spring Training, leading up to it and everything.”
Jacob deGrom would have also been a logical Opening Day starter, but manager Bruce Bochy has already announced the two-time Cy Young winner would start in the back end of the rotation as he continues to build up his strength and stamina in his first season post-Tommy John surgery.
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