San Francisco Giants sign Drew Pomeranz to cheap deal

Looking for depth in their starting rotation, the San Francisco Giants made a low-price signing Wednesday

The San Francisco Giants signed Drew Pomeranz and have already officially announced the deal on Wednesday, designating outfielder Mike Gerber in order to make room on the roster.

After struggling with depth in their starting rotation in 2018, the San Francisco Giants added yet another piece to their rotation for the 2019 season.

The Giants saw 10 pitchers start a game for them in 2018, with 8 making at least 9 starts. However, one of those was Johnny Cueto, who will not be in the rotation this season, and the other was Jeff Samardzija, who battled through injuries and inconsistency in 2018 to the point where his reliability for 2019 is in significant question.

That left Madison Bumgarner, on the last year of his contract, Chris Stratton, Andrew Suarez, and Dereck Rodriguez still on the team of primary starters from 2018. Rather than attempt to rely on 3 pitchers with less than 500 combined innings of experience among them, the Giants looked to find reasonably-priced veterans to supplement their rotation.

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First, they brought back

on a one-year, $7 million deal with a 2020 team option after he had an excellent 2018 with the team, tossing 171 1/3 innings, with a 3.57 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, and a 67/169 BB/K ratio. Once one of the game’s top young pitching prospect, Holland’s career had been derailed by injury before his resurrection last season.

Today’s signing attempts to do another similar resurrection in 2019. After a number of solid seasons after leaving Colorado, Drew Pomeranz had a rough 2018 with the Boston Red Sox. One year removed from a 17-6 record over 173 2/3 innings with a 3.32 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and a 69/174 BB/K ratio, Pomeranz was horrific in 2018. He posted a 6.08 ERA and 1.77 WHIP over 74 innings.

That poor season in one of the more visible baseball markets in the game certainly skewed the view of Pomeranz this season in free agency, but the 6’6″ lefty is guaranteed just $1.5 million in his deal, with incentives that could bring the deal to $5 million, giving him ample motivation.

While the long-term still looks murky for the San Francisco Giants with a weak farm system and aging (and soon-to-be free agent) core, this signing could give the Giants pitching depth to make a run at the postseason one last time in 2019.