If you’re a STL Cardinals fan, you probably don’t think Drew Pomeranz is the answer. If you look closer, however, he may just be exactly what you need.
If you clicked on this page, STL Cardinals fan or otherwise, that probably means one of two things:
- You’ve just looked up Drew Pomeranz‘s numbers and want to know how I could possibly rationalize this or
- You’re a Giants or Brewers fan, or just pay attention to baseball and are already aware of his 4.85 ERA over 104 innings between the two aforementioned teams and want to know how I could possibly rationalize this.
Well, allow me to explain.
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In baseball, we know that many times the surface numbers don’t tell the whole story and that we have to do some more digging.
The same holds true for Pomeranz, who could be a star.
Now you’re asking “But Jake, how can a starter who is about to turn 31 and already been on six different teams possibly be a star?” Well, you’re right reader, Pomeranz won’t do much when he’s starting games.
But he could be one heck of a reliever.
Just before being traded to the Brewers mid-season Pomeranz made the shift into the bullpen. And from there he was electric over 25 appearances with Milwaukee, recording a 2.39 ERA and striking out more than 15 batters per nine innings.
Want to get even weirder? Of course, you do. Pomeranz struck out 50 of the 106 batters he faced as a reliever. That’s good for a strikeout rate of 47.2%, one of the best rates of the decade (sixth-best to be specific) and just slightly behind guys like Josh Hader this season and Craig Kimbrel in 2017.
So what happened? Why did Pomeranz suddenly turn into this shutdown reliever? Well as a starter Pomeranz tried to be a five-pitch guy, which he’s never been. He’s only ever had two really good pitches, his fastball, and his curve. The move to the bullpen allowed him to focus solely on those pitches, as used only those pitches after being removed from the rotation in late July.
Why does he fit with the Cardinals, don’t they already have a good bullpen?
Yes the Cardinals bullpen was good in 2019, but you can never have too many good relievers, just ask the Tampa Bay Rays.
Pomeranz fits what would be the STL Cardinals two main criteria: he’s a lefty, and he won’t be horribly expensive. The Cardinals have Andrew Miller but is Tyler Webb really inspiring a ton of hope as the next lefty up? And as far as cost it’s unlikely that anyone invests more than two years and a couple million into a guy who has exactly one half of an excellent season.
St. Louis is already in danger of crossing the luxury tax threshold so they will be in the market for cheap talent, and after getting swept by the Nationals in the NLCS they’ll be wanting to make a revenge tour, which would require top-end talent, which Pomeranz has the potential to be. It just makes sense.