2) Worst contracts in the NL East: Patrick Corbin
In the 2018-19 offseason, Patrick Corbin signed a six-year $140 million dollar deal with the Nationals. He was coming off of his best season which saw him finish in the top five in NL Cy Young Award voting with Arizona and was going to be the third member of Washington's big three in the rotation behind Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.
For the 2019 season, their plan was executed perfectly. The Nationals won the World Series and Corbin was a huge reason why, posting three solid starts while also working effectively out of the bullpen. Corbin's three shutout innings in Game 7 were a huge reason they won the World Series.
Since then, the contract has been an absolute disaster. He struggled in 2020, took a major step back with a 5.82 ERA in 2021, and has been even worse in 2022.
Patrick Corbin is the worst pitcher in baseball right now. I don't think it's a stretch to say that and I don't think anyone would argue that.
The southpaw has gone 4-16 with a 6.96 ERA in 24 starts for the Nationals. He has given up the most hits and earned runs in the National League while leading the league in losses. If the Nationals were playing for anything, Corbin would be in the bullpen or probably released by now. His -2.6 bWAR is hard to fathom.
The Nationals being unable to dump him in a Juan Soto trade means there's virtually no way out of this contract other than just releasing him. Corbin is making $24 million dollars next season and a whopping $35 million dollars in 2024 before hitting free agency.
I'm sure Nationals fans are perfectly fine trading five years of an awful Patrick Corbin for a World Series title but it must be very hard to watch this guy struggle this much every fifth day.