BUZZ RISING ON NL LEFTY
Diamondbacks’ Corbin already on Yankees’ radar
PHOENIX – The greatest free agent class in baseball history just got a whole lot better, and you better believe the Yankees are paying close attention.
The Yankees, who are getting below the $197 million luxury tax for a reason, know all about the marquee names who will be free agents in November: Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Clayton Kershaw.
But there’s another player out there who has their office buzzing.
He happens to be a New York kid who grew up worshiping the Yankees, whose family is several generations deep in Yankees fandom, and who dreamed one day of pitching for the Yankees.
The name is Patrick Corbin, and he pitches for the Diamondbacks.
And right now, he might be pitching better than anyone in the game.
Corbin is 4-0 with a 1.89 ERA, leading the major leagues with 46 strikeouts and ranking third with a .140 opponent’s batting average and fourth with a 0.66 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched).
He also happens to have the nastiest slider in the game, with opponents barely able to even make contact, swinging and missing at 33.1% of them this season, according to Brooks Baseball.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a slider like that since Steve Carlton,” says Rick Schu, the Giants assistant hitting coach. “I mean, it just disappears.”
He’ll be one of the elite free agent pitchers in seven months, hitting the market as a 29-year-old lefty who will have less than 950 major league innings