MLB: Three surprising bullpen arms dominating early in 2020

Drew Pomeranz has found a home as an MLB reliever for the San Diego Padres.

We previously highlighted Drew Pomeranz after the first week of the season after his first few impressive outings out of the San Diego Padres bullpen and he has yet to slow down since.

A former starter with the Padres back in 2016, Pomeranz worked almost exclusively out of the bullpen with the Milwaukee Brewers last season and was solid, striking out 45% of hitters he faced across 26.1 innings.

Padres general manager AJ Preller was intrigued enough to give Pomeranz an eye-opening four-year deal worth $34 million last offseason, a move many questioned for a reliever.

In eight outings with San Diego, Pomeranz has recorded three saves and has yet to allow a run in 7.1 innings of work. He’s also stranded 100% of runners he has inherited.

Pomeranz and his 0.5 fWAR currently lead all of MLB. He’s struck out 10, walked three, and allowed just one hit all year. Notably, the Padres haven’t been afraid to use him as the team’s closer in tight games over Kirby Yates.

Case in point on Monday night. Up 2-1 over the LA Dodgers in a crucial divisional game, Padres manager Jayce Tingler brought out Pomeranz to shut the door.

We may end up revisiting this in three weeks and see quite the shift in performance for these arms, but their early 2020 performances have been impressive and gone a long way in helping their teams get to where they are right now. Hopefully, the positive trends continue.