Mariners get unexpected boost with AL West rival's desperation signing

The Seattle Mariners are a long way from scoreboard-watching season. Spring training is mind-your-own-darn-business season, and the Mariners have plenty to figure out internally before they open their 2025 season at T-Mobile Park against the Athletics next Thursday.

This said, they're probably not unhappy with the Texas Rangers' latest transaction.

With Cody Bradford sidelined with elbow soreness and Jon Gray out with a fractured wrist, the 2023 World Series champions suddenly found themselves short on healthy starting pitchers this week. Their solution was to sign veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin to a one-year deal, which Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports will pay a little over $1 million.

As news stories go, this one might actually bode better for the Mariners and other teams in the AL West than it does for the Rangers themselves.

Now pitching for the Rangers: MLB's most hittable hurler

One wouldn't say it's fun to dunk on Corbin. Now 35 years old, he's had himself a darn good 12-year career in which he's been a two-time All-Star and a World Series champion. Over $150 million in career earnings, mostly via a six-year pact with the Washington Nationals that ended in 2024, isn't a bad perk either.

If all the Rangers want is for Corbin to soak up innings, well, he'll be able to do that. At a time when there really aren't any more iron men among starters, he's been made of steel. Since 2017, he's fourth in innings pitched and batters faced.

But as the Rangers must know, Corbin is also hittable. Very hittable.

Since his career first began going sideways in 2020, Corbin has been a shoo-in to allow 10-plus hits per nine innings annually. Overall, the last five seasons have seen him give up 139 more hits and 83 more runs than any other pitcher.

It's possible that the Rangers see something in Corbin that the rest of us don't, but that's really just one of those courtesies you extend without really thinking about it. His expected batting average last year was .295, which was higher than Corey Seager's expected average on the other side of the ball.

How soon do the Mariners get to face Corbin?

The Mariners might already have the inside track to the AL West title. Perhaps this sounds like a jinx after near-misses in 2023 and 2024, but FanGraphs gives them a 32.7 percent chance of winning the division compared to 28.1 for Texas and 30.5 for the Houston Astros.

What these numbers nonetheless indicate is that it's going to be another close race, a la the ones of the last two seasons. Two games separated the Mariners, Rangers and Astros in 2023, and Seattle finished just 3.5 games short of Houston last year.

Every win is going to count, in other words, and the Mariners will have a chance to do damage against the Rangers early. Whereas just three of their first 48 games are against Houston, they play Texas six times in their first 33 games.

It's a reach to think that Corbin will be ready for the first Mariners-Rangers series at T-Mobile Park, which will go down between April 11 and April 13. But the Mariners can hope to catch him and light him up in Arlington when they visit between May 2 and May 4.

Whether Corbin will keep pitching for the Rangers beyond then will depend; not just on how he performs, but whether Bradford and Gray recover in good time and on whether further injury issues don't crop up. To this end, Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle, and Kumar Rocker are not exactly pillars of durability.

As the Mariners will still have seven games left against the Rangers after those first six, it would probably be just fine with them if Corbin was made to stick around for a while.