The Mariners announced that right-hander Jesse Hahn and left-hander Drew Pomeranz were both released from their minor league contracts. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times notes that both pitchers had enough service time to request releases if they weren’t going to make the Mariners’ Opening Day roster.
Pomeranz and Hahn have a combined 18 years of MLB experience between them, but the two veterans haven’t appeared in a big league game since the 2021 season. Hahn didn’t pitch whatsoever in 2022 or 2023 while apparently recovering from a shoulder injury, but he resurfaced to toss 50 1/3 minor league innings with the Triple-A affiliates of the Dodgers and Mariners in 2024. Hahn’s combined 4.29 ERA and 25.1% strikeout rate were respectable enough, but he also had an outsized 17.2% walk rate.
Injuries have dominated Pomeranz’s career narrative, and a variety of health issues (most notably a flexor tendon surgery) limited him to 19 1/3 minor league innings over the last three seasons. He did sign a Major League deal with the Giants last May but didn’t see any action at the MLB level, as he was designated for assignment and then outrighted off the 40-man within a few days of joining the team. An All-Star starter back in 2016, Pomeranz seemed to be on the verge of re-inventing himself as an elite relief arm, leading to a four-year, $34MM deal from the Padres in the 2019-20 offseason. Unfortunately, continued health problems kept Pomeranz from living up that salary, even though he had a 1.62 ERA over the 44 1/3 innings he was able to pitch in 2020-21.
Neither Hahn or Pomeranz posted particularly good Cactus League numbers, leaving the Mariners looking elsewhere for bullpen help. Right-hander Casey Legumina was also optioned to Triple-A, so Carlos Vargas will break camp as the final member of Seattle’s bullpen. Divish observes that Vargas’ out-of-options status might’ve helped the team’s decision, as Legumina has options remaining and can be more easily shuttled on and off the roster.
I like Vargas making the roster since he throws extremely hard
We now have 4 flamethrowers in our bullpen assuming brash still has his velo
I prefer pitchers who can get batters out.
He’s out of options, but he hasn’t had a great spring and didn’t have a good 2024. I’d be surprised if he breaks camp with the team.
Pomeranz is made of glass. Unless he blew the barn doors off this spring he wasn’t making the team.
Pomeranz has one of the more lengthy and circuitous Transaction Logs I have ever seen on Baseball Reference.
DANGIT. I wanted to see that big yakker at T-Mobile!
It won’t be long before Taylor Saucedo’s 4 seam FB has the same pitch profile as D Pom’s Uncle Charlie! Haha
Speaking of Lefties- It’s so nice to have G Speier’s velo back to where it was in 2023. He has looked really good for almost every sgl Spring outing this yr. We’d feel more confident about late inning LHP on RH matchups if Gabe can recover some of that 1st pitch strike magic from 2023. We’re a better team when Saucedo is coming into lower leverage AB’s. B Garcia looks to be a pretty good (high ceiling) backup LHRP to serve as emergency depth too
ayrbhoy, I was curious to hear what your thoughts were regarding Haniger last season. To my understanding he was completely healthy and was of course pushing himself on his preparation as he does. So I couldn’t figure out why he never got back to any baseline consistency. Do you think he was hiding an injury? Or just age-based diminishment of skills, perhaps accelerated by his injury history?? Do you think he has anything left ??
Sauce has a groovy curveball and a lefty!
Releaser Jerry strikes again…
I feel like Pomeranz has been the up and coming next generation of elite pitcher who’s on the cusp of figuring it out and breaking out for real since like 2005…. but I might be mixing him up with someone else, like a pitcher from Detroit… who am I thinking of? (I could just go to baseball-reference and figure it out, but lets have some fun, MLBTR comment section- who am I thinking of?
You’re not thinking of Casey Mize from the Tigers? He was a top pitching prospect, performed not too bad and then got hurt. That’s the only big Tigers pitcher that kind of sounds like that. Boyd has been up and down, Turnbull is another.
Drew Pomeranz
Todd Van Poppel
I looked it up and I think I am thinking of either Bonderman or Porcello, likely Porcello.
Porcello did figure it out and broke out, for at least one season.
POV: you are playing franchise mode with the Oakland A’s on MLB 15 the show.
Looks like 8 man opening day bullpen of Bazardo, Munoz, Santos, Saucedo, Snider, Speier, Thornton and Vargas. Bazardo and Vargas will face pressure to preform early with the April and May returns expected for Taylor and Brash.
There are two enormous holes in Seattle’s bullpen to start the season and no clear internal options to fill them.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they pick up an arm or two off waivers this week.
You could have told me that Pomeranz was 56, not 36, and I would have believed it.
Drew can be in the White Sox rotation
That means Fujinami did not make the roster.
The Mariners could’ve used guys like these—older players with talent but some risk—as a cheap way to find hidden gems. Instead of just cutting them when they didn’t make the roster, the team could’ve offered them a reason to stick around, like extra money for doing well in the minors or a promise to call them up later. These guys can walk away anyway, so why not make it worth their while to stay? If just one turns out great, it’s a win for almost no cost.