The weather is already wreaking havoc on MLB’s scheduled games this week: several of them have already been postponed.
The Washington Nationals are one of the teams in danger of seeing one or more games impacted by potential rain.
Their manager Dave Martinez, however, recently said to Washington Post reporter Jesse Dougherty that they will keep their rotation plans intact, rain or not.
“Dave Martinez said that, no matter the weather the next few days, Patrick Corbin will start their first regular season game. And Josiah Gray will have game two,” Dougherty tweeted on Wednesday.
Dave Martinez said that, no matter the weather the next few days, Patrick Corbin will start their first regular season game. And Josiah Gray will have game two.
— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) April 6, 2022
A Crucial Season For The Struggling Corbin
The 32-year-old Corbin was one of MLB’s top left-handers from 2017 to 2019, but he had a really rough time in 2020 and 2021.
During the pandemic season, he posted a poor 4.66 ERA in 65.2 innings for the Nationals.
Last year, he was even worse, with a ghastly 5.82 ERA in 171.2 frames: not only he was bad, but he pitched a lot of bad innings that ended up affecting the Nationals’ season.
But the team traded Max Scherzer last year, and Stephen Strasburg, a stud when healthy, is currently on the shelf.
Gray is not experienced enough to headline an MLB rotation (although he is very talented) and other pitchers such as Anibal Sanchez, Erick Fedde, or Paolo Espino are not frontline starter material.
Corbin has what it takes to rebound: he just needs to regain the slider that made him so successful a few years ago.
Last season, his slider posted a negative -5.2 mark in FanGraphs’ pitch value metric, after being a positive in every year of his career.
The Nationals don’t have many hopes this year, but they will at least want their former top starter to pitch like one.
