The Rangers positioned Jack Leiter on the 15-day injured checklist, retroactive to April 3, due to a blister on the center finger on his throwing hand. Texas recalled veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin from Triple-A Spherical Rock in a corresponding transfer.
Leiter landed a season-opening rotation spot, at the very least partly due to Spring Coaching accidents to Jon Grey and Cody Bradford. His first two begins have been wonderful. Leiter has reeled off 10 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts. He has allowed solely six hits and one stroll. The previous #2 general decide has gotten whiffs on 14.5% of his pitches whereas averaging nearly 98 MPH on his fastball. He had cruised by way of 5 scoreless innings with six punchouts towards Cincinnati on Wednesday earlier than the blister compelled him out of the sport.
Whereas it’s unlikely to be a long-term absence, Leiter’s early-season run will probably be paused for at the very least two weeks. Texas has off days on April 10 and 14, so they might solely must deploy a fifth starter as soon as earlier than Leiter’s return. Tyler Mahle, Jacob deGrom and Kumar Rocker will take the ball for this weekend’s sequence towards Tampa Bay. Corbin and Nathan Eovaldi will get the primary two video games of subsequent week’s sequence at Wrigley Area in some order.
It’ll be the group debut for the 35-year-old Corbin. The veteran southpaw signed a one-year, $1.1MM free agent deal in mid-March. Between the late signing and the beginning of his little one simply earlier than Opening Day, Corbin didn’t get any Spring Coaching sport motion. He agreed to be optioned to Spherical Rock to construct up. Leiter’s damage pushed him to the large leagues earlier than he may make any Triple-A appearances. Corbin will presumably be on a low pitch restrict for his first begin of the season.
The 2-time All-Star has eaten loads of innings in the back of Washington’s rotation over the previous few years. He posted a 5.62 ERA throughout 174 2/3 innings final season. Corbin has allowed an ERA above 5.00 in 4 consecutive seasons however topped 30 begins and 150 frames in every.
