Patrick Corbin signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Blue Jays yesterday, and he made his organizational debut by tossing five scoreless innings and 74 pitches in a start for A-level Dunedin today. Prior to Corbin’s outing, Toronto manager John Schneider told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson, Sportsnet and other media that the Jays would see how the start went before deciding on any further progression. While Corbin’s unsigned status kept him from participating in a normal Spring Training, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith wrote yesterday that Corbin has gone beyond 80-pitch workloads in his personal workouts, and tossing 74 pitches today certainly indicates that the left-hander’s arm seems pretty close to fully built up.
The recovery periods for such injured starters as Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, and Shane Bieber will naturally factor into how Corbin is used in Toronto, as Schneider left open the possibility that the veteran could be used in more of a long relief role. “We definitely view [Corbin] as a starter or a length option. Until the dominoes start to fall back into place with Trey, José and Bieber, you look for length and how we can use it,” Schneider said.
If and when the Blue Jays get close to their full complement of starters healthy, Corbin is likely the odd man out of a rotation mix, so a bullpen role might eventually be in his future. Using Corbin in the bullpen would also add some needed southpaw depth to Toronto’s relief corps, as left-handers Mason Fluharty and Brendon Little have both struggled badly in the early going in 2026.
More from around the AL East…
- Red Sox manager Alex Cora told MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith and other reporters that Kutter Crawford is also slated to throw four simulated innings on Monday or Tuesday before beginning a minor league rehab assignment. Crawford didn’t pitch in the majors or minors in 2025 due to both a lingering knee injury, and then wrist surgery. Between Crawford and Patrick Sandoval (Tommy John surgery) both on the verge of rehab assignments, the Sox may soon have a good deal of rotation depth. Boston already has five healthy starters in Garret Crochett, Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray, Brayan Bello, and Connelly Early, plus prospect Payton Tolle as another depth option. As the cliche goes, however, a team can never have too much pitching, and Johan Oviedo is now a question mark as he battles an elbow strain.
- Ryan Pepiot threw a bullpen session on Friday, and Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times writes that the right-hander is expected back after the Rays’ April 6-12 homestand. Pepiot wasn’t expected to miss too much time after he started the season on the 15-day IL with right hip inflammation, and he projects to be out for roughly a week beyond the minimum 15-day absence. The 28-year-old Pepiot has been a solid part of Tampa’s rotation for two seasons, and the 2025 campaign saw him post a 3.86 ERA, a 24.6% strikeout rate, and a 9.0% walk rate over 167 2/3 innings.
- Also from Topkin, Edwin Uceta may be ready for a rehab assignment after tossing 22 pitches during an extended Spring Training game on Friday. Like Pepiot, Uceta also started the season on the 15-day IL, as the reliever was bothered by a right shoulder impingement that kept him from any game action during the Rays‘ big league spring camp.
The baseball media often raves about the A.L East, but when’s the last time anyone from the A.L East won the World Series?
Well, four of their teams have won pennants the last eight seasons which is pretty good.
The answer is 2018 and that’s better than the Central divisions.
More recently than every other AL team except for the two in the state of Texas.
BTW, in 15 of the last 20 WS the American League has been represented by a team from the East division or the state of Texas, so perhaps the attention is deserved.
Corbin looked pretty good today. He pitched game 1 of a doubleheader with a start time of 3;10 or so. It was sunny and 87 at first pitch.
Velocity as high as 91 on his four-seam and the slider was as slow as 78. Only Low A hitters and MLB hitters are much better, but he pitched longer and better than I expected. His personal training kept him in really good shape.
Okay I’ll make the first post since it’s halftime.
I think Crawford and Sandoval will be factors this season. They will be needed, and after shaking off the rust they will do okay.
BTW – Is Roman the future fulltime DH for the Red Sox? I love the guy, but once again his throw today was …. not good.
His throws are roamin’.
Fever- How was Anthony’s defense last year, I thought he had a reputation for being a solid defensive outfielder. If the team was hitting those things would likely be overlooked. We need to score more than 2 runs if we are going to win games. Even the bad teams are going to be difficult to beat unless our pitchers are lights out and going more than 4 or 5 innings and the offense awakens from its winter hibernation. What is going on with Yoshida? I thought he was going to be the one getting on base the most. Now he has absolutely no trade value and is not contributing at all to the team. Hopefully we will start seeing more games like yesterday when we are driving in key runs.
I too was under the impression Roman was supposed to be a plus defender, and don’t remember seeing him having any issues in the field last summer. Am I just having selective memory? Was I mistaken? The two godawful throws he’s made already have me starting to wonder.
Dirty – Brace yourself before watching this video!
youtu.be/47JH2nePW4U?si=lrUc1ZkoYHVU_xkL
BTW – It’s actually been 3 bad throws he’s made this season already.
Lovely! I missed one of them, as I’ve only been able to watch about 3 and a half of the games so far. Was bad enough that I thought there were already 2. Good thing he’s in left and not right, then!
Defensive Runs Saved had him at +7 in the outfield last season, while statcast had him with 6 Outs Above Average and a +4 Defensive Run Value.
By most any metric, he was a comfortably above average performer on the grass last season.
That’s what I thought! Glad I am not crazy. He must have the yips or something right now. I hope he gets through it and gets back to playing well. We do also have to remember, as ready and poised as he has often looks he’s still 21 years old. Growing pains and mistakes are a natural part of the process.
Canuck – It’s the arm that is a concern, check out his rating last year.
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?lg=all&ind…
Uncle – FG gave Roman’s arm a negative rating last year. In his first game he let a base hit roll under his glove and all the way to the wall, the next day Cora embarrassed him in front of reporters.
I thought he had a solid reputation in the minors too, but I don’t follow the minors all that close. I can say with certainty he’s been below average in his short time with the big club.
Yoshida was hitless in ST until the end, I became concerned. I’m not as confident in him anymore, he can still get on base with walks but he is going through a really rough stretch with no hits.
Tomorrow is a must win, they need to jump all over Buehler. If they don’t they will not be able to score off the Padres great bullpen. Then they have Milwaukee which has been playing amazingly well. So if they lose tomorrow, there’s a good chance they are 2-10 by next weekend.
Asking because I legitimately don’t know and not because I’m trying to poke holes in your comment – are their arm rankings good? I don’t know what goes into that one, but do know that defensive metrics have been widely considered notoriously unreliable in general. Hopefully it’s something that can be considered noise? Sox Prospects, which is what I rely on the most for keeping tabs on the minor league pipeline, profiled his arm strength as above average, so I wasn’t expecting these noodle armed throws to be an issue with him.