Just a few years ago, Cody Ponce was on the outside looking in when it came to Major League Baseball. Released by the Pittsburgh Pirates after a short stint that saw him appear in just 20 games between 2020 and 2021, Ponce’s career looked like it might quietly fade into the background. Instead, he took the road less traveled - and turned it into a launching pad.
After three seasons in Japan, Ponce signed with the Hanwha Eagles of the KBO for the 2025 campaign. What followed was nothing short of dominant.
The 31-year-old didn’t just thrive in Korea - he rewrote the record books. Ponce put together a 17-1 record with a 1.89 ERA, racked up a league-record 252 strikeouts, and walked away with both the Pitching Triple Crown and MVP honors.
That kind of production doesn’t go unnoticed - especially not by MLB teams looking for upside at a reasonable price.
One club reportedly keeping an eye on Ponce is the San Diego Padres, and the fit makes a lot of sense. The Padres are in a bit of a bind when it comes to their rotation.
Dylan Cease is gone, having signed a seven-year deal with the Blue Jays. Yu Darvish is expected to miss the entire season following elbow surgery.
And there’s a chance they could lose Michael King to free agency as well.
That leaves a lot of innings unaccounted for - and not a ton of payroll space to fill them. Enter Ponce, who could offer San Diego a cost-effective solution with intriguing upside. No, he doesn't have the MLB track record of Cease or Darvish, but what he does bring is a fresh arm, elite recent performance overseas, and the kind of momentum that’s hard to ignore.
We’ve seen this story before. Pitchers like Merrill Kelly, Miles Mikolas, and Erick Fedde all took the international route to revive or reinvent their careers - and came back to the majors with real value. Ponce is hoping to be the next name on that list.
For a Padres team that needs to get creative to stay competitive, especially in a loaded NL West, giving a shot to a guy who just dominated in one of the world’s toughest pro leagues isn’t just a gamble - it might be a smart play.