The Giants announced that they have signed left-hander Drew Pomeranz to a one-year deal. It was reported earlier that he had been released from his minor league deal with the Dodgers. In corresponding moves, right-hander Mason Black was optioned and catcher Jakson Reetz was designated for assignment.
Pomeranz, 35, returns to the major leagues for the first time since 2021. With the Padres at that time, he required flexor tendon surgery and repeatedly hit setbacks in his attempts to return to the mound in the following two years.
This year, he signed a minor league deal with the Angels and threw eight innings for them in Spring Training. He didn’t crack the Opening Day roster with that club, getting released and signing a new minor league deal with the Dodgers.
Since signing with the Dodgers, Pomeranz has been pitching for Triple-A Oklahoma City, with a couple of interruptions. He once opted out but then re-signed shortly thereafter. He also landed on the minor league injured list April 21 but returned from the IL a couple of weeks back.
He’s made two appearances since coming off the IL, striking out seven batters in three scoreless innings. Overall, he’s has thrown nine innings for OKC with six earned runs allowed this year, but four of those came in his first appearance of the season. In eight frames since then, he has a 2.25 earned run average, 48.3% strikeout rate and 3.4% walk rate.
That good form perhaps gives the Giants some optimism that Pomeranz can get back to the pitcher he once was. Prior to his injury woes, he spent a decent chunk of time as a lockdown reliever, a period of his career that began with the Giants. That club signed him to a one-year deal in 2019 but he had a 6.10 ERA through 17 starts. They moved him to the bullpen and he looked good enough in four relief outings that the Giants were able to trade him to the Brewers alongside Ray Black for Mauricio Dubón.
Pomeranz dominated for the Brewers and parlayed that showing into a four-year deal with the Padres going into 2020. He continued pitching well for the Friars and had a 1.91 ERA from the time of the trade to Milwaukee to the end of 2021. He struck out 37.8% of batters faced, gave out walks at a 10.2% clip and got grounders at a 46.2% rate.
As mentioned, the last two years of his deal with the Padres were lost in the injury wilderness. But he seems to have mostly been in good health this year, pitching for the Angels in the spring and for Oklahoma City since then. That sets him up for a nice comeback story and perhaps gives the Giants a chance to catch lightning in a bottle.
The Giants have won seven of their last 10 and are now just one game out of a Wild Card spot. That’s been despite a poor performance from the bullpen, as San Francisco’s relievers have a collective 4.59 ERA on the year, which puts them 25th in the league. If Pomeranz is in good form, he can help bolster that group for a playoff chase this summer. Or if the Giants should fall out of contention, perhaps Pomeranz will find himself traded away from San Francisco at the deadline for a second time.
Reetz, 28, was added to the club’s roster a few weeks back as their catching depth was suddenly thinned out. Tom Murphy suffered a significant knee sprain and Patrick Bailey was battling concussion symptoms. But the Giants later signed Curt Casali to share the catching duties with Blake Sabol, nudging Reetz back down to the minors. Bailey has since been reinstated from the concussion IL, knocking Reetz even farther down the catching chart.
The Giants will now have a week to trade Reetz or pass him through waivers. He hit .083/.083/.333 with the Giants in 12 plate appearances and only had two previous major league trips to the plate. Since the start of 2022, he’s hit .254/.356/.537 in the minor leagues. He still has a couple of options and could perhaps appeal to clubs looking for some extra catching depth.
Black being sent down will mean the Giants need another starter at some point. Blake Snell is currently on the paternity list but should be back with the club shortly. He’ll join a rotation that also consists of Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison. They have guys like Kai-Wei Teng and Landen Roupp on the 40-man roster while Spencer Howard is a non-roster option with some major league experience, but they could also consider deploying a bullpen game at some point.
That didn’t take long…
Drew will pitch seven more brilliant innings and then be out injured for the rest of the season
Says Manny’s crystal ball.
Sure is a lot of dark matter in there.
@oldgfan. But is he wrong?
We’ll find out at the end of the season. Nobody knows, but SFG usually has good luck with pitching project guys.
I think the G-men have a better chance with Ray and Cobb then Drew lasting for lots of innings.
I’m losing faith in Cobb with all the shoulder issues along with his age and coming off the hip surgery. Drew will be in a long relief role most likely.
Ray should be a nice late season add to the rotation.
Desperation starts with a D and you will rew the day you turned him down…
Those are the exact words I came here to say. Bravo.
Bro is cooked.
Hopefully another reclamation project.
asking lightning to strike in the same place twice is… unlikely
It’s come to this, eh Farhan…
Out of spring training I thought he was a better option than some of the folks on the angels staff. Despite some bad blowups, I think the pen has gotten on track recently. Hope he pitches decently for the Giants.
Not bad livin’ to be out of a job for only five hours and change.
I hope it works out for Drew.
Smart signing
He’s got a 26 man roster spot until Snell comes back from maternity leave. If he does well they will probably send Avila back down.
Mets missed the boat on this guy
12-20 innings, IL for the rest of the season. Not a bad gig.
Pomerantz is probably rested enough to strike out Marte, McNeil, Bader, Nido, Lindor and Alonso in two innings of work tonight.
That’ll be a nice body of work before promptly heading back to the IL.
Farhan still making a check for 1 fluky year.
He’s still got it
Facing the woeful bats of the Mets will give the Giants hope he’s the best thing since sliced bread, until The Phillies burn his toast.
Because it went so well last time he was Giant?
It did, have you looked at his splits? As soon as they converted him into a reliever, he was absolutely lights out.
Try reading the article, he was great as a reliever. He also turned into dubon, who was a former top 100 prospect
And Dubon, as I recall, was to be the SS of the future for the Giants, did exactly WHAT for them before being off-loaded to the Astros?
You recall poorly. Dubon was never heralded as the SS of the future. He was a utility player.
He wasn’t, they tried him out in center specifically because they didn’t think he was an everyday player at short, but wanted him in the lineup. He didn’t do much, but it’s still a good trade.
Did and wasn’t wowed by four relief appearances and a Dubon trade, but you enjoy that.
Then you’re clueless, cause someone smarter than you gave up a top 100 prospect for those 4 relief appearances
@bart
Why are you so defensive? I see that Tigers didn’t handle you with soft hands, but that’s no reason to accuse him of self esteem issues.
Defensive? I thought I was being supportive.
He played for the Giants before he ever played for the Dodgers? How are those 2009 highlight videos treating you?
@chumpy
“LA has deemed unable to help a winning team”
Or it’s possible that pitching is not a zero sum game. You’re making it sound as though the Dodgers are discarding elite relievers because they can’t match their high standards. But if that were the case, why would the Dodgers have Elieser Hernández, a guy the Marlins didn’t bother resigning so he had to settle with a MiLB contract for the Mets last year, only to not even crack their bad roster? Why did they purchase Banda, a career minor leaguer, from Cleveland? Why do they continue to throw Michael Grove, who at this point is basically Jordan Lyles with some strikeouts, out there?
What’s even more likely is that the Dodgers would have been happy to select Pomeranz over Banda as a bullpen lefty, but already have ticking time bombs in Glassarm and Paxton, on top of their slew of other injuries, and didn’t want another one.
He will pitch like an ace as long as it takes for him to get a big multi year contract again. Just like Blake Snell.
HA! As I predicted right after he was dumped.
Ya you did.
The dude is only 35? Seems like he should be 50
Way more pedigree than a Mitch White.
Clearly showing what a biased, uneducated fan you are. Dodgers left over scrub? He was a Giant long before he was a Dodger. But please, carry on with your BS, boy.
Farhan is dumpster diving once again.
Can someone in the Giants organization fire that idiot?
Farhan is the classic example of the Peter Principal. He kept rising through promotions but has now hit the point of mediocrity. As an Assistant to the Assistant he might be OK. As the head honcho – nope.