The Giants signed LHP Drew Pomeranz to a heavily incentivized contract for 2018. He is coming off a disastrous season with the Red Sox which was plagued by arm injuries and loss of command. Before that, he had 2 excellent seasons with identical ERA's of 3.32 and 170.2 and 173.2 IP respectively for the A's and Padres in 2016 and the Red Sox in 2017. The contract calls for a base salary of $1.5 M with a whole series of esclators involving days on the roster, IP and Starts.
Despite a 6'6", 240 lb frame, Pomeranz has never been a hard thrower. His top average FB velocity was 91.5 in 2015. His best pitch has always been the curveball which doomed his tenure with the organization that drafted him #5 overall, the Rockies. It was only after he landed in a more pitcher-friendly environment, Oakland, and worked with current Giants pitching coach, Curt Young, that he found traction on his MLB career. Looking at his Pitch Type Info chart on Fangraphs, he rarely throws a changeup and his cutter usage % is is single digits. He's essentially a 2-pitch, FB/Curve pitcher and the FB is a soft tosser. Even though his contract is incentivized toward starting, I'm thinking his repertoire looks more like a lefty reliever.
This is a low cost, low risk move which could pay big dividends if Curt Young and the pitcher-friendly environment enable him to resurrect his career one more time. That will likely depend almost entirely on his health. Nice signing by Farhan Zaidi.
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I am sure there are some readers who are deeply disappointed that Mike Gerber was DFA'd to make room on the 40 man roster for Drew Pomeranz. That move leaves the Giants with just 5 OF's on the 40 man roster, Steven Duggar, Drew Ferguson, Chris Shaw, Austin Slater and Mac Williamson. Zaidi indicated that to reporters that he is still optimistic about upgrading the OF situation before the season.
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Interesting sign we'll see if he's a starter. My guess is reliever as well. He was actually drafted by Cleveland and then shipped to his doom over to Colorado
ReplyDeleteJ(SF)
I like the Pomeranz signing, low risk, low cost like you said. Zaidi also said something interesting about circling back on players who were thought to be unfeasable earlier in the off season. I've been wondering who he was talking about maybe Marwin Gonzalez?
ReplyDeleteOptions: Shaw 3, Duggar 3, Ferguson 3 (but rule 5), Slater 2, Williamson 0, Hanson 0
ReplyDeletePollock signs with Dodgers on four-year deal worth around $50MM in guaranteed money, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, though it is “filled with incentives, escalators and opt-outs.”
ReplyDeleteI hope this Pollock signing blows up on Dodgers and glad Giants passed on this contract.
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