PHOENIX — If there was a baseball version of a dating profile for Drew Pomeranz, it might read something like this: “Easy-going, go-with-the-flow guy … eclectic musical tastes … enjoys a good, clean scorebook … but not long walks or any walks, actually.”
Start with the easy-going, flow part.
Would Pomeranz, the struggling starting pitcher who morphed into a lights-out reliever, be a good fit for the Padres’ vacant closer role? Would he feel more comfortable being that late-inning setup guy who had a strikeout percentage of 39.7 last season, the highest of his career? Would he prefer to be a firefighter, cooling big bats at other critical moments of games?
“I’m personally not tied to a role,” Pomeranz, the 32-year-old lefthander said Tuesday, a few hours before throwing an inning against the White Sox at Camelback Ranch. “If they want me to close, that’s fine. If they want me to pitch the sixth, seventh, eighth, that’s fine, too. I don’t care.”
One of the biggest questions of the Padres’ pivotal spring is who will be handed the ball last, with the game on the line.
From the middle of the 2017 season through 2019, a pair of All-Stars filled the role, with Kirby Yates taking over after Brad Hand was traded. When Yates was injured last season, another All-Star, trade-deadline rental Trevor Rosenthal, became the obvious choice. This lap, though, it’s unclear who will own the ninth inning in 2021.
“With a lot of those bullpen guys just making their first or second outing, we haven’t really gotten into it,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “I think in an ideal world, you’d like to have a set ninth-inning guy. Who that is, are we open to a committee, are we open to matchups? We are. We would love to come out of here feeling well, hey this is our ninth-inning guy.
“… Do I think Drew could do it? Absolutely.”
Against the White Sox on Tuesday, Pomeranz crafted an impressive inning. He blew away infielder Danny Mendick on three pitches. He needed just four to erase Matt Reynolds on a check swing. After AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Luis Robert trotted to first after a catcher’s interference call on Austin Nola, Pomeranz coaxed Leury Garcia to fly out.
There is one potential issue with the closer candidacy of Pomeranz, though. He can’t remember the name of his own musical introduction.
“The same walk-out I had last year was, I don’t even remember, it’s more like a Latin-techno-ish song that we used in Milwaukee,” Pomeranz said with a laugh. “We played it all the time in the clubhouse. Guys would always mess with me when it would come on and they would call me in and ... (Venezuelan catcher) Manny Piña would dance. It was kind of funny.
“I was like, OK, I’m going to use it in a game. The first time I used it in was the players weekend (Aug. 25, 2019). I … pitched two innings against the Diamondbacks and I struck out six guys in a row, all the guys that I faced. I was like, well that one’s going to stick for a while.”
The name, for the record: “Baila Conmigo,” a song from Dayvi and Victor Cardenas, featuring Kelly Ruiz, which translates to “Dance with Me.”
There might be plenty of dance steps necessary while the Padres determine a closer. The bullpen tango could include Emilio Pagan, a right-hander who saved 20 games for the Rays in 2019, and three-time Pirates’ All-Star Mark Melancon — an offseason pickup from the Braves who has more than 200 career saves.
“We’re open to a lot of things,” Tingler said.
So, the bullpen speed dating continues.
Pomeranz clearly has the numbers. He recorded four saves in five attempts, back-filling for Rosenthal. Opponents didn’t score off him until the last of his 20 outings as Pomeranz struck out 29 and held opponents to a .145/.260/.194 batting line.
But does he have the makeup and mentality?
“Closing’s a different animal, I’m not going to lie,” Pomeranz said. “You go out there and feel like the game’s in your hands. It’s your job to finish it. It’s extra adrenaline. I like that. … I’ve done it before. A lot of guys here have done it before, too. I just try to mentally just stay somewhere in the middle. That way, it doesn’t matter when I go in.
“I just try to be the same guy the whole time.”
Staying mentally “in the middle” doesn’t exactly stir memories of Yates’ steely edge. Not every closer has to be wired like Al Hrabosky, though.
Pomeranz intimidates with stuff, not style.
“He’s certainly capable of (closing) and he’s got some history of doing that,” Tingler said. “As comfortable as I am with him in the ninth inning, there’s a lot of advantages at times using him in the seventh or eighth inning, or the critical part of the game.”
Add another trait to his diamond-dating profile: honesty.
When asked whether he felt as locked in as he seemed a season ago, Pomeranz laughed.
“No,” he said. “Baseball can be tough sometimes. Sometimes, even when you’re searching for it a little bit, you need to make it look like you know exactly what you’re doing. So, I’m glad that you perceived it that way. I just went out there and tried to do my very best every time. Sometimes it works out for you. Sometimes it doesn’t.
“I had the luck bug on my side.”
Pomeranz said he does more by doing less.
“My whole thing is to try to simplify things as much as I can,” he said. “Since I’ve been in the bullpen, I’ve cut down on my pitch selection, the pitches I use. My execution, mentally, I’m going out there with not a lot of thoughts in my head. That makes things easier.
“Just kind of throw as hard as I can and pick out a spot.”
For now, courting the right closer continues — even if he turns out to be a lefty.
