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.