Even with being a World Series champion, Drew Pomeranz has a murky future as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Here’s why Dave Dombrowski should let him go.
With all of the success that the 2018 Boston Red Sox had, there’s still a good amount of work to be done, especially with regards to the pitching staff.
While it seems like most of the starters will stay put at least for the 2019 season, there is still one player that could be on the move. His name; Drew Pomeranz, the king of inconsistency.
A couple of days ago, I wrote a piece about my initial thoughts about the upcoming free agency season. For the most part, the Boston Red Sox pitching became the emphasis, and Pomeranz was a big reason for that. He’s had one of the more interesting past three years, really since he came over to Boston from the San Diego Padres back in 2016.
From there, he went from a perennial All-Star who started every five days on Boston’s staff, to someone who didn’t throw a pitch throughout the entire 2018 postseason.
Now heading into the winter, Pomeranz may not get the contract extension he thought he probably deserved just a year ago. With that in mind, here are three reasons why the Boston Red Sox should not waste their time with the lefty.
1. He’s always been inconsistent
If you don’t believe me, just look at his career stats on Baseball-Reference. After posting three straight sub-par years with the Colorado Rockies from 2011-2013, where Drew Pomeranz mustered a 4-14 record, the southpaw improved immensely, to the point where he was an All Star in 2016.
After obtaining a modest 4.59 ERA in the second half of that same year with Boston, Pomeranz developed into a premier third-pitcher in the rotation in 2017, achieving a 17-6 record and a 3.32 ERA en route to one of his more solid years as an MLB starter.
This inconsistent run continued into 2018, where Pomeranz had to deal with injuries to his left shoulder. His innings pitched decreased from over 170 to 74 between 2017 and 2018, and as a result, Alex Cora had to find other ways to utilize him, mainly through the bullpen. As detailed by FanSided writer Rick McNair, the lefty’s fastball velocity went down by two ticks (91 to 89), and hitters were batting .297 against him. Not only that, but his 5.4 BB/9 ratio was one of the worst on the team.
All of a sudden, a guy who possibly looked like a max-contract type player, turned into someone who isn’t even worth the $8.5 million the Boston Red Sox were giving him. Cora could not figure out where to put him, so he decided not to use him in the playoffs. And it worked int he grand scheme of things.
2. Boston has other contracts to worry about
According to MLB Trade Rumors, the Boston Red Sox have little interest in looking at other free agents outside their team, especially since they went into the highest luxury tax bracket possible in 2018.
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Believe it or not, but Boston is in a tough situation. They made a lot of win-now moves with the acquisitions of Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi mid-season, and because of that, their farm system is depleted. Not only that, but they’re first round pick is set to drop about ten spots.
And, to make matters worse, Chris Sale, Xander Bogaerts, and JD Martinez are all under Boston’s control for only one more year.
Therefore, Drew Pomeranz will not be a top priority. Re-signing the guys that were integral in bringing home the championship should be GM Dave Dombrowski’s plan, no matter how difficult it is. Trading will not be an option with such a horrendous farm system. Many of Dombrowski’s past maneuvers clearly turned out to be win-now moves, meaning there’s little room for flexibility.
Since they are so strapped, the Sox might as well focus on repeating. As I mentioned in my “5 Reasons why the Boston Red Sox will repeat in 2019” article, picking up Sale’s option was key. So far, Dombrowski has done an excellent job in re-attaining the players who made it happen. Unfortunately, Drew Pomeranz is not a part of the group.
3. Again, no experience in the playoffs
At this point, this just seems like common sense. It’s not worth handing out a measly one-year contract to a pitcher who didn’t feature in the playoffs at all. Especially in Boston’s situation.
Pomeranz is still only 29 years-old. Eventually, he’ll probably have another fantastic season, like the one he had in 2017. With the plethora of talent Cora has at his disposal though, I don’t anticipate that type of season happening in Boston.
Wherever Drew Pomranz does land, I hope he re-kindles the magic that made him such a hot commodity just two years ago. As of right now though, that doesn’t seem to be the case any time soon.