MLB Trade Rumors – The Mariners are trading reliever Drew Pomeranz to the Cubs, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The veteran southpaw had been pitching in Triple-A with Seattle. According to Rosenthal, Pomeranz’s deal contained an upward mobility clause that required the Mariners to either call him up or trade him if another team was willing to offer him a big league roster spot.
This was the biggest news of the Off Day yesterday so I figured we’d recap it briefly.
Here’s the important stuff:
- Drew Pomeranz is on the Cubs now after being traded for next-to-nothing from the Mariners. He’s an older lefty that was once considered the best lefty pitching prospect in baseball. He was always pretty average until going to the bullpen in 2019 full time. Then he was very good but COVID got in the way and his career completely fell apart after signing a big deal with the Padres to be their set up man.
- He was with the Mariners in spring training and showed a pretty solid two-pitch mix with his four seamer and knuckle curve. Both pitches are above average.
- Unfortunately he’s got major command issues right now with 8 free passes in 9 minor league innings against 14 strikeouts. The swing and miss is elite but he’s all over the place which is a bigger problem than the strikeouts solve.
- The Cubs are playing with house money on this roster move because Justin Steele is going to the IL. So you have room to add another pitcher if Colin Rea can step up and start for Steele from the bullpen. That’s why adding Pomeranz isn’t a big risk at all because they can release him if he blows.
- Alternatively, we know he can’t be worse than Luke Little or Jordan Wicks as a reliever.
- I want to see Wicks start instead of being our 6th option in the pen
- Pomeranz can effectively get the same innings as Colin Rea before the Steele injury (not much) while being a 2nd lefty to Thielbar should we need two lefties.
- Another thing is that his stuff is good enough for the 3-batter limit. He’s not just a lefty-on-lefty matchup. Instead his 4-seamer elevated is tough on right handed hitters because it pairs so well with the knuckle curve. If he can command his fastball vertically then he should compete for late innings. Problem is you need to control your fastball before you can worry about commanding it, and right now he’s got major control issues. That’s a combination of mental and mechanical which can be fixed tomorrow or not at all. It’s different for everyone and who knows why he’s not throwing strikes right now. Only thing that matters is if they can fix it then he’s going to have a huge runway to compete and be elite for a bullpen that needs the help.
- It’s not a great move by any stretch but also not the worst. Now is the time to be trying different arms and the fact we got a veteran with two good pitches and history with Craig Counsell should be enough to get your interest.
- Not for nothing – I like how quick Jed Hoyer is getting different guys into the bullpen this year. Feels like we’re much further along with auditions then this time last year.
Overall rating = 6.3
I can’t imagine a world where I’m relying on Drew Pomeranz but at the same time that’s entirely within his control. He can pitch his way into being a shut down late inning guy and resurrect his career with the Cubs provided he throws strikes. I think that’s a fair trade off and for these reasons I’m totally okay with the move so long as he doesn’t completely suck balls.