John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Drew Pomeranz can laugh now, but he couldn’t laugh then.
“I was so mad,” the Padres reliever said with a chuckle this weekend, remembering his short-lived time in the Giants’ bullpen.
He did not want to be there. A predecessor of Kevin Gausman, Drew Smyly and Anthony DeSclafani, he had signed with the Giants before the 2019 campaign to rebuild himself as a starter following a poor 2018. Through 16 starts, he hadn’t seen the results tick up, posting a 6.42 ERA for a team that was sinking.
But maybe there was hope: He had begun throwing more four-seamers and fewer two-seamers, working on a revised pitch mix that the Giants helped him with, Farhan Zaidi “running the numbers” on him, Pomeranz said. He threw five innings of one-run ball at Coors Field on July 16, a couple weeks ahead of the trade deadline — but had been hearing rumblings about a transition he did not want to make.
The Giants wanted to see how his stuff would play out of the bullpen, and that would be his final start.
Pomeranz does not remember a firm meeting but does remember a lot of confusion. “They all thought the other one told me,” he said. He would move to the bullpen and young Conner Menez would get a chance out of the rotation.
So he took the uptick of four-seamers he was using and “started throwing as hard as I can, instead of saving some,” the Padres weapon said over the phone Friday, before the Giants took the first two games of the series. “And I was pissed off that they put me in the bullpen in the first place, so I used that.”
He virtually only threw his harder four-seamers and his curveball and proceeded to strike out eight in 5 1/3 one-hit innings. The Giants cashed out and sent Pomeranz and Ray Black to Milwaukee for Mauricio Dubon, who has become a useful major leaguer.
Both teams won the trade. Pomeranz was dominant in 20 games out of the bullpen for the Brewers and rode his new role to a four-year, $34 million deal in San Diego.
The Giants dragged Pomeranz into a role he resisted, but the new pitch mix and the ability to unleash himself in spurts was revelatory. It was a different pitching infrastructure during Pomeranz’s stop in San Francisco — Brian Bannister, Andrew Bailey & Co. had not yet been installed — but it’s one that worked for both parties.
“I texted Farhan after I signed with San Diego,” Pomeranz said from the other clubhouse at Oracle Park. “Just thanked him. Said honestly I was mad at the time, but that’s the best thing for me. Had he not done that, then who knows? I wouldn’t have wanted to accept a job in a bullpen role prior to doing that. Coming back and my velo jumping up, the confidence I got from all of that — things happen for a reason.”
The Zaidi touch has worked with greater efficiency with the new additions that helped Gausman command (and accept) a qualifying offer and turned Smyly’s $4 million pact with San Francisco into an $11 million deal with Atlanta. The very early returns on DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Aaron Sanchez, who all found soft landing spots at Oracle Park, are promising.
Pomeranz credited Zaidi and his staff and thinks the effect is real.
“It’s become a thing. He sees something in some of these guys. You’re obviously not going to hit on all of them, but certain people — for me in particular, it was the best thing for me,” Pomeranz said. “… They’re doing a real good job of finding those guys that are improving.”
Guys who are now Pomeranz’s rivals, the Padres projecting to be an NL West power, though the Giants are off to a quick start and holding a 2.5-game lead in the division before the series finale Sunday. He has talked with a few of his old pals in orange and black and shouted out Bannister, too, who had coached him in Boston.
The epics that have arisen from Padres-Dodgers have earned the early-season headlines, but the Giants have begun turning heads.
“The Giants are playing well right now. We’ve had some pretty tough games so far,” the 32-year-old said. “Everyone playing better — this division’s got a lot of good rivalries.”