Milwaukee Brewers: Drew Pomeranz Basically Filling Corey Knebel’s Role

The Milwaukee Brewers have gotten significant production out of reliever Drew Pomeranz, filling a spot that’s been vacant since the start of the season.

When the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Drew Pomeranz back in July, most fans saw his struggles as a starting pitcher and were not pleased with his acquisition, instead hoping for old friend Will Smith in return.

But Pomeranz has been phenomenal since moving to the bullpen full-time and he’s provided a huge boost to the bullpen.

Few expected these kinds of strikeout numbers from Pomeranz and this kind of success. But he’s been proving us wrong and he’s been a big part of this team’s September turnaround. He’s pitching in the late innings and just pouring in the strikes.

Filling The Corey Knebel Role

Last year, and the few years prior to that, Corey Knebel filled a similar role, with similar results. In 2017, Knebel’s breakout year, he posted a 1.78 ERA in 76 innings with 126 strikeouts. That’s good for a 14.9 K/9 rate.

This year, as a Brewer, Pomeranz has a 1.94 ERA in 23.2 innings, also with a 14.9 K/9 rate. He’s pitching in late inning, high leverage situations, while getting some saves and just looking utterly dominant.

Knebel had some struggles in 2018, but got right for September and October and was basically in the same role as Pomeranz is now. With Jeremy Jeffress and Josh Hader getting the bulk of the save opportunities while Knebel was getting right, he ended up getting those big strikeouts in big situations, while occasionally getting a save.

Drew Pomeranz is basically a left-handed version of Corey Knebel.

A power fastball, a nasty breaking ball, and high strikeout numbers is the name of the game for both Knebel and Pomeranz.

A Huge Addition

As all of us Milwaukee Brewers fans know, Corey Knebel was lost for the season back in spring training with Tommy John surgery. This team has been missing him in the back of that bullpen all season. Jeffress wasn’t his old self, and that caused more reliance on Hader, and he had his own tough stretch this year.

For the first few months of the season, they really needed a guy like Knebel out of their bullpen. The bullpen lacked dominance as their three headed monster was cut down to one head. Apparently that three headed monster was in fact a Hydra, as the heads are growing back after one was lost.

Drew Pomeranz has been a great addition to this team, and he’s bringing this bullpen back to where it needs to be.

The Milwaukee Brewers are riding a hot streak right now and they’re pushing themselves into a playoff spot.