Padres claim intriguing reliever Sean Poppen off waivers

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Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

On Friday afternoon, the San Diego Padres claimed Sean Poppen off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks and added him to the teamā€™s 40-man roster.

Poppen, who will turn 29 during the upcoming season, owns a career 5.08 ERA at the big league level. Heā€™s logged 67 ā…“ innings since debuting back in 2019 with the Minnesota Twins and threw 28 ā…” innings as a member of the Diamondbacks in 2022.

His numbers off the bat arenā€™t inspiring, but a deeper dive suggests there may be something with Poppen as a middle-relief option moving forward.

Heā€™s been rather unsuccessful against left-handed hitters throughout his career, allowing a .943 OPS with nearly as many walks (16) as strikeouts (23). Those numbers change drastically against right-handed hitters, however, who own a career .794 OPS against him with 14 walks to 44 strikeouts.

A big reason for this drastic split is Poppenā€™s slider. Itā€™s a pitch that heā€™s able to generate heavy sweeping action on from the right side of the rubber. Itā€™ll spin away off a horizontal axis to right-handed hitters but barrel inwards to lefties.

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He wonā€™t ever have success against left-handed professional hitters unless he increases the velocity of his slider, but there is a path to continued success for Poppen as a relief weapon against right-handed hitters.

Further tinkering with placement of his slider and using his fastball to set his slider up could actually improve Poppenā€™s production moving forward. With this waiver claim, the Padres are banking on pitching coach Ruben Niebla working his magic and molding this clay into a quality middle relief arm.

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