Another name that seems to come up more and more in trade rumors is that of lefty pitcher Drew Pomeranz of the San Diego Padres, linked to the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles.
All four teams are in the hunt for someone to help their rotation and maybe the bullpen too. In any case, it’s no surprise that they have their crosshairs on Pomeranz, who is presumably made available by the San Diego Padres, adding Pomeranz to the team back in December 2015 in a complicated trade with the Oakland Athletics. He’s been on the team for half a season, but with the Padres 13 games below .500, 4th in the NL West, anyone who is worth something is “for sale”.
Pomeranz is arbitration eligible at the end of the season, and the Padres are currently leaning towards trading him, although if there’s a sign that they can sign some sort of extension with him, they might elect to keep him. He isn’t eligible for free agency before 2019.
The Rockies used him as a starter, the Athletics in the bullpen and rotation. In San Diego, he’s a full time rotation guy, delivering his finest baseball, in his sixth MLB season. The 27 year old has a 2.47 ERA with a 1.059 WHIP, while boasting a 10.1 strikeout per nine innings ration. He’s struggles to avoid walks (2.80 ratio) but he’s better than before, and seems like a potential star pitcher if he continues progressing like he has this season. His trade value could be diminished because there’s no track record of him being able to handle 190 innings and more a season, but he’s currently one pace to go close to 200.
It’ll come down to the Padres decision whether they want him under their control through the 2018, or to capitalize on his talent now, with plenty of teams looking to add pitchers. If they’ll officially put him on the trading block, he’ll be taken pretty quickly.