The New York Yankees are in desperate need of an additional top of the rotation arm and the top pitcher currently available has narrowed his options down to the Washington D.C. or the Bronx.
According to Dan Federico on Twitter, Patrick Corbin is rumored to currently be deciding between the New York Yankees or the Washington Nationals. If his source is correct, this would rule the Philadelphia Phillies out of the Corbin sweepstakes.
MLB Trade Rumors ranked Corbin as the number three overall free agent in this years class. Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are understandably the only two players ranked above him. According to Tim Dierkes, Corbin is expected to receive a six-year, $129.00 million contract, which is surprisingly reasonable based on his performance last season.
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Throughout the 2018 regular season, Corbin put together an 11-7 win-loss record through 200.0 innings pitched in 33 starts. He compiled a 3.15 ERA, a 2.47 FIP, and a 1.050 WHIP. Although these numbers far exceed his career 3.91 ERA, his career 3.65 FIP, and his career 1.285 WHIP, he may have very well finally put everything together during his age-28 season.
Comparatively, National League Cy Young award winner Jacob deGrom and Trevor Bauer were the only two players to rank above Corbin in the FIP category. deGrom had a phenomenal 1.99 FIP and Bauer had a solid 2.44 FIP. As the FIP stat judges a pitchers performance with stats he can control, it is very impressive that Corbin ranked above pitchers such as Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and American League Cy Young award winner Blake Snell in this category.
Corbin also ranked third in home runs allowed per nine innings pitched (0.68), sixth in strikeouts per nine innings pitched (11.07), and thirteenth in base on balls per nine innings pitched (2.16). If deGrom had not put together such a phenomenal season, Corbin would have likely taken home the NL Cy Young award last season due to his strong overall performance.
As Corbin has the potential to be a Cy Young candidate if he is able to replicate his performance last season going forward, he would fit perfectly with Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka in the Bronx as well as with Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg in D.C.