San Francisco Giants: Three New 2019 Additions to Watch For

Pomeranz really didn’t have much of a positive impact on the 2018 World Series Champions, despite still winning a ring. The 6’6 righty was originally acquired by the Boston Red Sox at the 2016 Trade Deadline from the San Diego Padres,

The Red Sox parted with Anderson Espinoza to get him (Padres No.12 Prospect) and proceeded to see the best and worst of Pomeranz over the next two and half years.

His season last year consisted of about 74.0 brutal innings of a 6.08 ERA/5.43 FIP. A few obvious culprits would be a 5.4 BB/9, a career low 37.1 GB%, and a fastball that was about 2 MPH slower than usual over his 11 starts and 15 relief appearances.

The 30-year old Pomeranz has been extremely streaky throughout his career, but this more or less represents his worst output. Now lets examine his best:

Playing in spacious Petco Park for the first half of 2016, Pomeranz pitched to a 2.47 ERA/3.15 FIP over 102 innings. He limited opposing batters with a minuscule 0.7 HR/9 and a 10.2 K/9.

He had some trouble adjusting to the mid-season trade, but got into a nice groove in 2017, when he pitched a career high 173.2 innings with just a 3.32 ERA/3.84 FIP.

At his best, Pomeranz can carve up the opposition with a killer fastball-curveball combination, limiting homers and striking out batters at an above-average clip. At his worst, Pomeranz will leave his curveball where it can be mashed and struggle to find the zone with his fastball.

I expect pitching half of his innings in Oracle Park factored into his decision to choose the Giants for his modest one-year deal ($1.5MM base, can exceed $5MM with incentives mainly predicated on him staying healthy). I believe the environment, along with a switch back to the NL, and an offseason focused on regaining his velocity and control will make him an effective enough back-of-the-rotation starter.

That is, if he keeps the injury bug away.

One of Zaidi’s latest moves was to ship off RHP Jordan Johnson to the Cincinnati Reds for 26-year old utility infielder Connor Joe.

This is a classic Zaidi move, trading from an area of surplus (Johnson wasn’t going to see much, if any, time in the big leagues this year in San Francisco) to get a potentially undervalued asset that can help elsewhere.

Zaidi and his last team, the Dodgers, acquired players like Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, and Max Muncy utilizing the same method. He clearly knows what he is looking for when he takes a flier on a player.

Granted, Joe has struggled in his minor league career up until last year, but last season finally showed why he was a first round pick in 2014. He hit 17 homers with a .299/.408/.527 across AA and AAA for the Dodgers, displaying the combination of a little pop and a discerning eye that the team has targeted this offseason. He was then drafted in the Rule 5 Draft by the Reds.

Moreover, he’s versatile. He’s played innings at first base, third base, right field, left field, and second base (in descending order of playing time). He will bring immediate competition to Alan Hansen and Pablo Sandoval, two players acquired by the “previous regime.”

Since he was a Rule 5 pick, and the Giants gave up an actual player to get him, it’s expected that he’ll break camp with the team. If he doesn’t make the club, he must be placed on outright waivers where any team can choose to pick him up. If he clears waivers, he must then be offered back to his original team.

It wouldn’t make sense to trade for him then let him go, so we’ll have to wait and see if he’s more Kelby Tomlinson or Chris Taylor for the Giants this year.

Perhaps a familiar name to San Francisco Giants fans, Solarte spent 2015-2017 as a member of the San Diego Padres before being shipped to the Toronto Blue Jays last winter.

He proceeded to have a pretty terrible season for Toronto, hitting just 226/.277/.378 over 122 games leading to below replacement-level production.

After the Blue Jays sensibly decided to decline his club option, the Giants picked him up last month on a minor league deal that will pay him just $1.75MM if he makes the roster.

The 31-year old has been a utility infielder throughout his career, and should fill that same role for the Giants. Although his defense isn’t particularly good, he can fake it out there and also provides decent power, having hit at least 15 homers in each of the past three seasons.

Solarte’s right-handed bat will be a useful complement given the Giants will have lefties taking up the majority of at bats at first base, second base, and shortstop.

There are reasons to hope that he’ll improve this year as well. For one, he posted a career high 19.2% infield fly rate last year, which is honestly absurdly high. While it has trended up throughout his career, hopefully he can bring it back to his career rate of around 14%.

Hitting that many pop ups will ravage a batting average, but his hard hit rates have still suspiciously stayed close to his career numbers. He also saw fewer fastballs than he had at any other point in his career, so a few tweaks with Hitting Coach Alonzo Powell can prepare him better for the off-speed stuff.