Giants sign Drew Pomerantz

It's been a slow few days here at the home office, but one news note that I found interesting was the San Francisco Giants signing of left-handed pitcher Drew Pomerantz to a one year contract with a guaranteed 1.5 million in salary with 3.5 million possible in incentives.

Two things sent my antenna up on the signing of Pomerantz, who spent 2018 battling injuries and ineffectiveness with the Red Sox that saw him make 11 starts and 15 relief appearances on his way to an awful 6.08 ERA.

Pomerantz (assuming his health is in order) makes sense as a contender for the fifth spot in the Giants rotation with the loss of Johnny Cueto to Tommy John surgery behind Madison Bumgarner,  Jeff Samardzija, Dereck Rodriguez along with the recent signing of returnee Derek Holland as the top four.
Pomerantz will likely be challenged by second-year man Andrew Suarez and maybe Ty Blach for the fifth spot and should he win it with a return to his 2017 form (17-6 3.36 ERA in 31 starts), the Giants could have a pretty decent veteran rotation that could either surprise on the fringes of contention or deliver one or more veterans in trade deadline deals for prospects.
Pomerantz's best years (other than 2017) have been in Oakland and San Diego- large pitcher's parks and the newly named Oracle Park (coming soon in a post) certainly fits that bill for revitalization for Pomerantz's career.

The other was this- what if Pomeranz was installed in the bullpen, either because he was beaten out for a rotation slot or if the Giants thought he would better fill a bullpen need.
Here's the interesting part- If you move Pomerantz (or Andrew Suarez, also a lefty) to the relievers, San Francisco suddenly has a ton of quality southpaws there with Will Smith, Tony Watson, Ty Blach and Rule 5 draftee Travis Bergen (should he make the team) and could be in a position to move one or even two of them, perhaps as soon as departure from Arizona to the Bay.
Smith and Watson each are very valuable commodities and I could certainly see one traded before the season and the other around the trade deadline.
Quality lefthanded relievers with the ability to get righthanded hitters out (they hit .207 vs Smith and .231 vs Watson in 2018) aren't plentiful in the league and could return a quality prospect in a trade or maybe even a position player that might need a chance to play, although the Giants actually have one of those currently on the roster in Mac Williamson, but that's for another day.

Perhaps, in a few months, this post could be pretty unimportant as just another non-roster free agent that didn't work out.
It could also be very important in either helping to bring in some prospects to the system or even as a piece of a surprise wild card contender.