SF Giants should pull a Drew Pomeranz with Tyler Mahle ahead of trade deadline

The SF Giants announced that Adrian Houser will be moving to the bullpen while Tyler Mahle will be rejoining the starting rotation on Wednesday. The Giants got half of these decisions right, but they should really consider pulling a Drew Pomeranz with Mahle.

Now, one could be forgiven for reading the phrase, “pull a Drew Pomeranz” and think that is in reference to some muscle you forgot you had. Pomeranz was a pitcher for the Giants back in 2019 and while he just got designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels, the Giants were very smart with how they handled him in 2019.

They signed Pomeranz to be a starter that season and he struggled mightily. He lasted until July in the rotation and had a 6.10 ERA when the team finally decided to move the tall lefty into the bullpen.

It turned out to be a great move as he had four scoreless relief appearances leading up to the trade deadline which allowed the Giants to trade him and Ray Black to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Mauricio Dubón. While Dubón was never a huge contributor for the Giants, it was a great example of maximizing a guy’s value before the deadline.

Giants need to put Mahle in the bullpen ahead of trade deadline

With Mahle set to be a free agent, the Giants seem to be hoping that by putting him back in the rotation if he has a couple of solid starts then that could increase his trade value and they could deal him to a team in desperate need of a starter.

But with how bad Mahle has looked as a starter this season, posting a 6.04 ERA in 11 starts, to say that it is wishful thinking to believe he can turn things around would be putting it charitably.

The Giants made the right move by shifting Houser to a bullpen role. He too has been pretty dreadful as a starter this year so the Giants should move both guys to the bullpen and see if they can trade both of them to another team since teams always need bullpen help at the deadline.

It would be an admission that the Giants shouldn’t have signed either guy in the offseason which seemed pretty obvious from jump. But it would be better to cut bait now rather than wait and drag their feet on it. 

Moving Mahle to the bullpen would allow the Giants to replace him with Carson Whisenhunt or another young arm in the rotation which is far more valuable in a season like this one where the Giants are way out of contention. They need to find out what they have in their young arms.

It’s time to admit that both Mahle and Houser are bullpen arms at this point and should be used exclusively in the bullpen to try and build some value ahead of the trade deadline.

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