With the non-waiver trade deadline three weeks away, Padres left-hander and first-time All-Star Drew Pomeranz is drawing interest from the Texas Rangers, as FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal first reported. Sources told the Union-Tribune the American League West's first-place club has at least "kicked the tires" on Pomeranz, who is 8-7 with a 2.47 ERA.
Texas joins Boston, Baltimore and Miami as teams that recently have been linked to Pomeranz. Those developments do not come as a surprise. Pomeranz's career season has arrived on a fourth-place team, and, with two more seasons of club control, the 27-year-old is especially attractive to contenders.
The Rangers' connection is of some note. Texas, where Padres general manager A.J. Preller previously worked, drafted Pomeranz in 2007. Though he opted to go to college, the Rangers have followed his big league progress more closely than most.
Preller spent 10 years in the Rangers' front office. He is said to be particularly infatuated with infielder Jurickson Profar, whom he helped bring into the organization and who has returned from injuries to impress at the big league level this season. Prying Profar away likely would take far more than Pomeranz, however; still considered a future star by some evaluators, the 23-year-old won't become eligible for free agency until after 2019.
Given the paucity of quality available starters, Pomeranz could fetch plenty in his own right, and a club source recently suggested that the Padres will not consider move him for anything less than a substantial return.
Pomeranz is no stranger to being dealt, having already gone through the experience three times. He seemed unfazed Monday when multiple Red Sox reporters approached him to inquire about his status as a trade candidate.
"After the first time I got traded, I was in the bullpen warming up for a game in Double-A and got called back in and got traded," Pomeranz said. "So that was probably the craziest it could be. Once I got traded the next time, it got a little easier, and then I get traded the next time _ it's just part of it. It's part of the game."
Pomeranz did acknowledge the difficulty of avoiding the rumor mill.
"You see stuff, you hear stuff, you read it," he said. "I would love to win. I like it here. I would love to win here as well. Just trying to get better every time out there and trying to repeat what I did in the first half in the second half."
Asked if he had a preference if he were to be traded, Pomeranz said: "Not really. It really doesn't matter if I worry about it or not, because whatever's going to happen is going to happen. I learned that very quickly, getting traded my first year in pro ball. Just when you think you're getting settled somewhere, something seems to happen."
