On Friday night, the Toronto Blue Jays signed veteran pitcher Patrick Corbin to a one-year deal worth $1 million. 

Clearly, Corbin is being signed to help alleviate the health concerns currently in the starting rotation. As of now, Cody Ponce, Jose Berrios, Trey Yesavage and Shane Bieber are all on the injured list, and the team could use some cover. Ponce is going to miss "significant' time.

According to reports, Corbin has already reached 80 pitches in his bullpen sessions on his own, so he could be close to ready to insert into the starting rotation.

He is already pitching on Saturday at Single-A Dunedin, which is where Yesavage made his first rehab start on Friday. It's clear that Corbin was signed to help with the injury concerns, but are there are other reasons why the team signed him instead of say, Lucas Giolito, who we discussed earlier this week?

Let's discuss.

The 36-year-old Syracuse, N.Y. native is a 13-year veteran of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Washington Nationals and Texas Rangers. A two-time All-Star, Corbin is 110-142 lifetime.

Corbin helped the 2019 Nationals win the World Series, going 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA, but his career spiraled after that. He led the National League in losses each year from 2021-2023 and pitched to an ERA of 5.20 or above each season. He had a 5.62 ERA in 32 starts in 2024, but rebounded with Texas last season, going 7-11 with a 4.40 ERA.

Though he's struggled, he's been extremely durable in his career, making 30 starts or more in every season since 2017 (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season).

That durability will certainly help the heavily impacted Jays rotation.

It's fairly safe to say that Giolito is better than Corbin, so maybe part of the reason why the Jays chose Corbin is because they see him as a possible bullpen option eventually. 

Of course it's early, but lefty Brendon Little has an ERA of 18.90 in four games. Mason Fluharty has an ERA of 10.80 in four games.

Could the Jays look to replace one of their lefties with Corbin once all the starters get healthy? Maybe.

Even though he'd be signing late, Giolito is going to be more expensive than the $1 million that it cost for Corbin. And do you want to commit financially to a pitcher who won't have a spot once everyone comes back? Giolito is also not a bullpen arm, so the fit would be clunky when everyone is healthy.

With Corbin signing at $1 million, he affords the team the opportunity to use him in the bullpen, but he also affords the team the chance to move on from him fairly easily if thinks aren't working out, or if everyone is healthy again.

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