The Mariners and left-hander Drew Pomeranz have reunited on a fresh minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. He and Seattle signed a minor pact in the winter but he didn’t make the Opening Day roster and asked to be released. After presumably assessing his offers over the past few days, he has returned to the M’s on a new deal.
Pomeranz, 36, has been on the comeback trail for quite a while. He hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 due to various injuries, but he did just have a decent showing in camp. He tossed 7 2/3 innings of Cactus League action, allowing four earned runs. He gave out four walks but struck out ten opponents.
The southpaw had previously been one of the better relievers in the league. The Brewers acquired him from the Giants in 2019 and moved him from the rotation to the bullpen. He tossed 26 1/3 innings for Milwaukee after that deal with a 2.39 earned run average, 45% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate.
He hit free agency then and the Padres gave him a four-year, $34MM deal, making a large wager that he could continue that strong form. That worked well for a while. Pomeranz tossed 44 1/3 innings for the Friars over 2020 and 2021 with a 1.62 ERA, 33.7% strikeout rate, 11.4% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate.
But he’s been in the wilderness since then. He underwent flexor tendon surgery in August of 2021. After that, he hit various speed bumps in his attempts to get back on the mound, struggling to get back to 100% health. He pitched less than ten innings in each of the past three minor league seasons.
For the Mariners, there’s no harm in keeping him around as non-roster depth to see if things click back into place. Their two lefty relievers at the moment are Tayler Saucedo and Gabe Speier. Saucedo has an ERA of 4.00 over his 114 2/3 career innings, with Speier at 4.18 over 118 1/3. Pomeranz getting back somewhere near his peak would be a great find but perhaps a tall ask given his age and track record. But over a long season, injuries are fairly inevitable, so the Mariners may be able to use him at some point even if he’s not quite his previous elite self.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Very good pickup, this dudes a beast.
Can’t go wrong with a skilled lhp on a minor league deal
I still can’t believe A.J gave this guy 4 years.
@mlb
at the time it was a good deal, he was a great reliever.
AJ didn’t know injuries would bug him, even then he helped them make the postseason, and he was great with the all together.
“Great reliever”…Now, I am not an internet research guy, but what I remember is Pom being a SP most of his career. After converting to RP and having a quite good couple of months, A.J gave him a 4 year deal after the season.
In my opinion, a couple of good months, especially for a RP, does not equate to a 4 year deal. I don’t even remember Mariano Riviera, the gold standard of RPs, ever getting a 4 year deal.
Relievers are highly combustible and erratic year to year and 95% of them should never be given more than 2 yrs at most.
Even at the time, I remember most being surprised he got as many years as he did. Sure, he was good as a RP in 2019, but was still a bit surprising given how much he struggled as a SP in 2018 and 2019.
Print the playoff tickets! LMFAO!
Do the Mariners still have that tall lanky lefty in their system named VanScoter? Thought they would convert him to a RP and that he’d make the majors some day.
As far as I know he’s still around. Feels like fringe starter depth, stuff doesn’t play up as a bullpen arm, and Brandyn Garcia is ahead of him as both lefty starter and reliever depth. I may not have that right, buts it’s my understanding.
Nice pickup. Spring training numbers were not bad.