Milwaukee Brewers Acquire Drew Pomeranz From Giants In Trade

The Milwaukee Brewers have made a trade for a San Francisco Giants reliever. No, it’s not the one we were expecting.

In a stunning turn of events, we got this report from Robert Murray about the Milwaukee Brewers completing a trade with the San Francisco Giants.

Well that word “significant” in there makes one think that this involves stud closer Will Smith, or perhaps even starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner.

But SIKE, Brewers GM David Stearns makes a different deal entirely.

Instead, Stearns gets Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black, for one our top prospects in Mauricio Dubon.

What? How does this make any sense? All the rumors had a Dubon for Smith swap, and Dubon goes, but it’s Pomeranz instead.

Is Drew Pomeranz Any Good?

Well that depends. Pomeranz last posted a sub-4.00 ERA in 2017 with the Red Sox. Last year, he had a 6.08 ERA with a 5.43 FIP. This year, he has a 5.68 ERA with a 5.25 FIP in a similar amount of innings.

Pomeranz was a starter to begin the season and struggled to the tune of a 6.10 ERA. He made the move to the Giants bullpen a few weeks ago and has looked sharp in four appearances, having not given up a run in 5.1 innings.

But that’s still a small sample size of him pitching well and to give up Mauricio Dubon for an arm like that.

Not to mention, Pomeranz is a rental and will be a free agent at the end of the season. So to balance things out, the Giants threw in Ray Black.

Who Is Ray Black?

Ray Black is a fireball relief pitcher that’s currently in Triple-A but has been up and down with the big league club. In 28 total appearances in the big leagues, Black has a 6.04 ERA.

The good news is that Black, with his fastball that regularly hits 100 MPH, has a career K/9 rate of 16.3 across the majors and the minors. The bad news is, he has a 5.7 BB/9 as well.

Black is a project reliever that could be really good in the back end of the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen for years to come. But he has to figure out his command first.

Why Make This Trade?

At first glance, this is a puzzling move. The Brewers have desperately needed a starting pitcher and all they’ve gotten so far are three pitchers who are mediocre-bad at starting and have been moved to the bullpen this year.

Sure this helps the bullpen depth, but Pomeranz has his issues and so does Black. This doesn’t appear like a great “win-now” move from Stearns.

I suppose we have to trust him, but this is very odd.

The Milwaukee Brewers are going to have to answer some questions about both trades so far today, and this one is sure to draw a lot of criticism.