D-backs President: A pitcher has to step up this season in place of Patrick Corbin
Mar 31, 2014, 10:28 PM | Updated: 10:35 pm
The Arizona Diamondbacks may be 0-2, but perhaps the team’s biggest loss so far came when Patrick Corbin suffered UCL damage and required season-ending Tommy John surgery.
Corbin’s absence leaves the D-backs with a starting rotation consisting of Wade Miley, Trevor Cahill, Brandon McCarthy, Bronson Arroyo and Randall Delgado.
The D-backs haven’t had a 20-game winner since Ian Kennedy had a breakout season in 2011, and Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall says that since Corbin is not an option for the season, another pitcher is going to have to do what Kennedy did for the team three years ago.
After all, Hall said Kennedy is the reason the D-backs reached the playoffs that season.
“We need one of these guys to step up and have a season like Ian had, whether it is Cahill or McCarthy in a contract year, or Miley, who has certainly looked stellar in spring training,” Hall told Doug and Wolf of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
“Randall Delgado is going to be nice filling in. I think Bronson Arroyo is complete a pitcher as you can ask for. The guy is solid and he’s durable. But, one of them has to step up and have a season like Ian Kennedy had in 2011. You can’t have five guys who are all pitching .500 or
less. You’re just not going to go anywhere.”
Miley, just like his team, went .500 last season, while Cahill posted a 8-10 record. Both pitchers lost their first start of the season in Australia against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
McCarthy will take the mound Monday in the first of a four-game home-series against the San Francisco Giants. Miley and Cahill will start the second and third games of the series, respectively. Arroyo is scheduled to start the fourth.
