Starting Pitcher Had Worst Value Contract for Washington Nationals Last Season
The Washington Nationals are heading into the offseason with the hopes of turning the franchise around this offseason after a few years of rebuilding.
After a second straight 71-win season, the Nationals are hoping that their rebuild will come to an end soon. While having the same number of wins two years in a row might not seem like progress, Washington was utilizing a lot of their young players this campaign, and they all performed pretty well.
There is a lot of reason for optimism for the Nationals, as their lineup is littered with young talent. In the infield, Washington has CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. up the middle. In the outfield, they have an outstanding defensive center fielder in Jacob Young and two elite prospects in James Wood and Dylan Crews.
While there is a lot of talent in the lineup, the starting rotation has a lot of young unproven arms that the franchise is still evaluating.
One pitcher that won’t be on the team in 2025 is southpaw, Patrick Corbin. It was another tough season for Corbin, as while he did a good job eating innings for the Nationals, that is about all that he did.
Recently, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report spoke about the best value contracts in the league based on performance. Unfortunately for Corbin, based on his performance and massive contract, he was named the worst value player for Washington in 2024.
“The Patrick Corbin contract is officially over, and while his contract has been one of the worst in baseball the past several seasons, he will still be remembered fondly for his key contributions to a World Series championship in 2019. He was a 5.0-WAR player that season in his Nationals debut, but had a 5.62 ERA and minus-2.3 WAR in 744.2 innings over the final five seasons of his six-year, $140 million deal.”
This nomination doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, as after a memorable World Series win in 2019, the southpaw just simply hasn’t pitched well for the Nationals. If not for his massive contract, he likely would have been off the team years ago, but Washington was pretty much stuck with him.
However, with Corbin coming off the books this winter, that is a lot of money that the Nationals are going to be able to reallocate into other areas. As the franchise hopes to get back on track, ridding themselves of that poor contract will be very beneficial.
