According to multiple reports, the Seattle Mariners and Drew Pomeranz are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The deal includes an invite to spring training.
Pomeranz, 36, battled a rough couple of years, not seeing major league action since 2021 due to injury. Since his All-Star days, Pomeranz has bounced from the rotation to the bullpen, not locking down a spot. However, he caught new life as a high-leverage bullpen arm in 2019 and dominated throughout 2020 and 2021. Seattle has found itself in need of high-leverage arms, following the departure of Yimi Garcia, injuries to Matt Brash, and Gregory Santos, and Gabe Speier’s regression.
Drew Pomeranz Inks Minor League Deal
The Mariners could’ve seen Pomeranz’s arsenal or lack thereof. The key is in the simplicity, throwing two pitches: a four-seam fastball, and a knuckle curve. In 2021, he threw his four-seam fastball 75.3% of the time. Opponents weren’t necessarily fooled by batting .238. But even with that, he still racked up a WHIF of 29%, which is well above the major league average (22%).
Pomeranz’s knuckle curve, thrown 24.7% of the time would benefit from being thrown more. He managed a WHIF of 20%, holding batters to a .148 average on the pitch in 106 pitches.
Pomeranz was still a very effective pitcher in 2021, pitching to a 1.75 ERA in 27 games. But, in 2020, Pomeranz mixed up his pitches and found even more success. He pitched to a 1.45 ERA in 20 games. Surprisingly, he used his fastball more, at 79.6%. But it was how he navigated at-bats that was different. His knuckle-curve PutAway% was 28.6%, about 3.5% above average. In 2021, it was down 10%, at 18.2%. His fastball PutAway% was 24.4% in 2020 and 25.9% in 2021.
The Mariners’ pitching lab specializes in picking up pitchers down on their luck and building them up. They’ve publicly maintained that this is from allowing pitchers to play to their strengths and keeping things simple.
Main Photo: © Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
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