Washington Nationals trade rumors: Patrick Corbin sticking around

Washington Nationals fans had to hope that they would be seeing the last of Patrick Corbin in a few days. That is not likely to be the case.

Nationals’ general manager Mike Rizzo essentially admitted as such on Wednesday morning. He stated that Corbin would not be attached to another player in trade discussions as he did not want to dilute any possible returns.

Washington Nationals stuck with Patrick Corbin for foreseeable future

Corbin has gotten steadily worse since signing his six year, $140 million contract to head to Washington prior to the 2019 season. While he was a key part of the Nationals’ World Series winning rotation, he has become virtually unusable over the past two seasons.

This season has been even worse. Corbin has posted a miserable 6.02 ERA and a 1.701 WHiP over his 104.2 innings, striking out 98 batters with 36 walks heading into Wednesday. While he leads the majors in starts, he is also the major league leader in losses, hits, and earned runs. As he is still due another $59.8 million, including a salary of just under $35.5 million in 2024, one could understand why the Nationals would be tempted to attach him to another player to be rid of his contract.

That will not be the case. Rizzo rightly realizes that they need as much talent as possible to eventually return to contention. Adding Corbin to any player that they may deal will limit that return, especially if he is attached to someone such as Juan Soto.

And so, Corbin will not be going anywhere. Maybe a team would have interest in taking him on as a reclamation project, but not at that salary. As the Nationals would need to pick up a major chunk of that contract, they may as well keep him around and hope that maybe, just maybe, they can get more than one good year out of that deal.

It would be tempting to attach Patrick Corbin to another player in trade talks. However, the Washington Nationals are not taking that path.