Drew Pomeranz Continues to Impress in Epic Comeback

Since he hadn’t throw a single pitch on a big league mound since 2021, you’re forgiven if you thought Drew Pomeranz had sailed off into retirement after multiple long-term injuries and failed minor-league stints.

No, the left-hander is still kicking, and his epic comeback has been one of baseball’s best feelgood stories this year.

Yet, it’s largely flown under the radar. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been keeping an eye on Chicago Cubs box scores to see if/when Pomeranz is going to have a rough outing that’ll bring down his full-season numbers.

Yet, that still hasn’t happened. The 12-year veteran is now 18 games and 16.1 innings into his comeback and has yet to surrender a single run. Earned, unearned, nada.

At 36 years of age, Pomeranz is continuing to baffle the opposition, but this is not exactly a new development for him. A look further back will tell you that he’s actually been quietly dominant for years now.

Let’s take a closer look at the enigma that is Drew Pomeranz.

Drew Pomeranz’s Unique Journey

Having been drafted on two separate occasions and debuting all the way back in 2011, Pomeranz is an arm that’s got a lot of unique experiences and mileage on his arm. He’s spent so much time throughout his career on underperforming teams and he’s also been an underperformer himself in many different instances.

After functioning as a swingman early on his career, Pomeranz became a full-time starting pitcher in 2016 and promptly made the All-Star Game for the first (and to this point, only) time in his career. He remained in the rotation until the second-half of 2019 when the Milwaukee Brewers tried him out in relief on a full-time basis.

The results were pretty jarring, but in the best way possible. Pomeranz, 30 at the time, responded by giving the Brewers 25 dominant outings that resulted in a 2.39 ERA with over 15 strikeouts per nine innings (his previous career-high was 9.8 in 2016).

Since then, he’s remained exclusively a relief pitcher outside of a few outings as an “opener”. He’s only made 90 total outings since August 2, 2019, which was the first appearance of his with the Brewers.

Since that day, a total of 744 pitchers have thrown 80 or more innings. The pitcher with the lowest ERA in that span that meets the minimum inning threshold? That’d be Pomeranz, who has a 1.55 ERA.

Take that stat with a grain of salt, as Emmanuel Clase and his 1.82 ERA (second-lowest with our requirements) is much more impressive seeing as how he’s got 258 more games and about 255 more innings than Pomeranz in that time; but there’s no denying that Pomeranz has been money since he shifted over to the ‘pen.

A Comeback for the Ages

Pomeranz basically lost the entire 2022 and 2023 seasons thanks to a torn flexor tendon and a lengthy recovery. He spent brief and unsuccessful stints in the farm systems of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners, but an upward mobility clause in his contract with the Mariners led to an old friend helping Pomeranz land a new job.

For those unfamiliar, an upward mobility clause is an assigned date where a team must either promote a specific player (typically on a minor league contract), or check around the league to see if any of the other 29 teams would put said player on their big-league roster. In this instance, the Mariners called around and found that the Cubs would give Pomeranz a spot on their roster while Seattle themselves opted to pass.

Craig Counsell, who was familiar with Pomeranz after managing him on those 2019 Brewers, played a role in luring the southpaw to the Cubs, and so far things have worked out perfectly for all involved.

Pomeranz is pitching in meaningful big-league games for the first time in almost four full years. He’s also giving the Cubs a steady and reliable veteran presence in a bullpen that’s been surprisingly strong through the first few months of the new campaign.

What Caused This Huge Improvement?

The talent has always been there for Pomeranz, but a major shift in his pitch arsenal has significantly helped him improve his numbers across the board. He used to utilize a four- or five-pitch mix that involved a four-seam fastball, sinker, knuckle curve, changeup, and cutter.

In 2019, the opposition was hitting over .400 against his sinker and changeup, which led him to ditching the vast majority of his arsenal in favor of a fastball-knuckle curve combo.

Since then, the numbers have spoken for themselves.

That’s what his arsenal looks like now, and it’s clear that it’s working out for him just fine. Pomeranz has always had a deep, looping curveball and to open up this year, it’s been keeping every hitter that’s seen it off-balance.

Just What the Cubs Needed

To date, Pomeranz has struck out 16 batters, walked three, allowed six base hits, and zero runs to score. Once he hit 10 appearances, his run started to look more impressive, but he’s up to 18 now and he’s still been outstanding.

The Cubs have exclusively used him in short stints this year (he has yet to record more than four outs in a game), but that’s clearly the sweet spot. Sure, a lot of his usage this year has been in low leverage situations, but he hasn’t only been used in low-stress spots.

Pomeranz has faced a total of nine batters in high leverage situations this season. He has struck out three of them and has yet to allow a single hit in these instances.

Even if he’s getting most of his looks in low leverage, he’s given the Cubs a reliable middle-inning option who has prevented runs with the best of them and has helped the team build a five-game lead in the NL Central.

Entering Thursday’s action, the Cubs are sixth in baseball in bullpen ERA, coming in at 3.31. No relief-pitching corps in the league has allowed home runs at a lesser rate than the Cubs either, and they’re bested only by the Giants’ bullpen in total home runs surrendered.

The Cubs’ Pitching Lab Is Working Wonders

Making all of this even more impressive is that the Cubs are getting crazy-good production from multiple aging veterans whose best days were thought to be far in the rearview mirror.

Brad Keller, who’s turning 30 next month despite the fact that he’s in his eighth season in the big leagues, has been the perfect right-handed complementary piece to Pomeranz. Keller has made 29 appearances and sports a cool 1.99 ERA across 31.2 innings of work.

He’s striking out more batters than ever before while simultaneously limiting walks at a career-best rate and allowing just 6.8 H/9, which is his best since a nine-game stint in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Then there’s Chris Flexen, who’s also turning 30 in a few weeks. He’s also yet to allow a single earned run this year, and what makes his run impressive is the fact that he’s gone two or more innings in six of his 10 outings. Flexen isn’t being used in high leverage either, but he gives the Cubs yet another run-prevention machine from a place they may not have expected to find one.

The Cubs have maximized on three experienced pitchers who were all long removed from their most successful days in the big leagues. Pomeranz hadn’t pitched at all in the big leagues since 2021 and neither Keller nor Flexen had been reliable pitchers since 2019 and 2021, respectively.

Yet, the Cubs’ pitching lab has put them to work and gotten three useful arms because of it. Pomeranz and Flexen in particular were simply warm bodies to occupy roster spots, but now they’re sporting some wild scoreless streaks that are extremely fun to watch.