The Rangers placed Jack Leiter on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 3, because of a blister on the middle finger on his throwing hand. Texas recalled veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin from Triple-A Round Rock in a corresponding move.
Leiter landed a season-opening rotation spot, at least in part because of Spring Training injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford. His first two starts have been excellent. Leiter has reeled off 10 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts. He has allowed only six hits and one walk. The former #2 overall pick has gotten whiffs on 14.5% of his pitches while averaging almost 98 MPH on his fastball. He had cruised through five scoreless innings with six punchouts against Cincinnati on Wednesday before the blister forced him out of the game.
While it’s unlikely to be a long-term absence, Leiter’s early-season run will be paused for at least two weeks. Texas has off days on April 10 and 14, so they may only need to deploy a fifth starter once before Leiter’s return. Tyler Mahle, Jacob deGrom and Kumar Rocker will take the ball for this weekend’s series against Tampa Bay. Corbin and Nathan Eovaldi will get the first two games of next week’s series at Wrigley Field in some order.
It’ll be the team 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 birth of his child just before Opening Day, Corbin did not get any Spring Training game action. He agreed to be optioned to Round Rock to build up. Leiter’s injury pushed him to the big leagues before he could make any Triple-A appearances. Corbin will presumably be on a low pitch limit for his first start of the season.
The two-time All-Star has eaten plenty of innings at the back of Washington’s rotation over the past few years. He posted a 5.62 ERA across 174 2/3 innings last season. Corbin has allowed an ERA above 5.00 in four consecutive seasons but topped 30 starts and 150 frames in each.