The moment Clayton Kershaw re-upped with the Dodgers in lieu of exercising his opt-out, lefty Patrick Corbin -- late of the Diamondbacks -- became the undisputed best starting pitcher on the free-agent market.
That necessarily means that Corbin is widely coveted. Speaking of which, here's the lay of the land from MLB.com's Jon Morosi:
... he's drawing interest from the Yankees, Phillies and Nationals, among others. The Mets also could trade Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard and sign Corbin or another free agent, if they aren't optimistic about coming to terms with deGrom or Syndergaard on long-term contracts.
The Yankees have long been known to have interest in Corbin, and that Nationals make sense given that they traded away Gio Gonzalez last season and Jeremy Hellickson is himself a free agent. As well, if Bryce Harper signs elsewhere, then that would leave quite a bit of room in the D.C. offseason budget. The Phillies are expected to be big spenders this winter to the extent that Harper and Manny Machado are reportedly in play. As for the Mets, it seems likely that they'd pivot to a rebuild following any such blockbuster trades, but there's no making sense of that organization.
As for Corbin's merits, they're substantial. Here's his standout 2018:
Corbin this past season topped 200 innings for the second time his career, and his ERA+ of 137 was good for seventh place on the NL leaderboard. As well, his K/BB ratio of 5.13 ranked third in the NL. Corbin's got a long history of success at the command-and-control level, and that plus his strong ground-ball proclivities mean teams will be willing to look past his ordinary velocity. He's also still on the right side of age 30.
Whoever inks Corbin is likely going to be making a nine-figure investment, but he figures to be worth it (and then some).
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