The Nationals have signed veteran left-hander J.C. Romero to a minor-league contract and assigned him to Class AAA Syracuse, according to a club source.Romero, 35, was designated for assignment by the Phillies on June 16 after losing his late-inning role to fellow relievers Antonio Bastardo and Mike Stutes. He posted a 3.86 ERA in 24 games, though he put 29 men on base in only 16 1/3 innings.
A key member of Philadelphia's championship bullpen the past four seasons, Romero owns a career 4.07 ERA in parts of 13 seasons with the Twins, Angels, Red Sox and Phillies.
Romero will report to Syracuse but could be an option for Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo to promote later this summer. The club has been without a consistently effective left-handed reliever this season, with Sean Burnett struggling and Doug Slaten on the disabled list.
14 comments:
Was Jesse Orosco not available?
Rizzo, haven't you learned from your mistakes already? Stay away from any garbage the Phillies let go of!
You have Detwiler ready to go to be your LH stud in the bullpen!
P2P "Stay away from any garbage the Phillies let go of"
Very funny and true. Also funny on Jesse Orosco
Werth must be looking for an old friend to watch the playoffs with.
Impulse buy based on last night's bullpen implosion?
Oh my - guess Oli Perez needed a freind...
Stutes is right handed
It's a minor-league contract, he's not taking up a roster spot or anything. We have only one unreliable LHP in the bullpen right now in Burnett. Slaten is, well, not realistic. I like the move. Maybe a change of scenery pumps him up and gets him back into form, maybe it doesn't. Bottom line is it doesn't hurt this club at all to take a flier on a guy who has had past MLB success.
The commenter above is correct. Stutes is right handed. The Phils got tired of Romero walking every batter that he faced and decided that they're better off with only one lefty in the bullpen.
A reliever with a 3.86 ERA with a 1.74 WHIP and 35 years old doesn't spell 'RELIEF'
it spells R-E-T-I-R-E.
Seriously though, they didn't use him as a LOOGY, he was a 7th inning or 8th inning setup guy and his failures unfortunately were when he came in with men on.
He gave up Zero HRs this year but his problem was RH batters. JC faced 46 RH batters this year, they had a .435 OBP against him. No reason in the world to expect that to change so if Rizzo got him as a setup man, big mistake so let's hope it is as Slaten's unreplaced replacement.
My guess is Romero will be the new Slaten. Lefties batted .208 against him vs. Slaten who gave up a .321 batting average this year against lefties.
I would say decent signing if it is only as a LOOGY replacement but DON'T let him face RH batters DAVEY.
SteveM, comic relief from you! Good analysis, thanks!
Just testing a new browser ...
Hey, it works!
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