The Oakland A bullpen was devastated by the free agency earlier this winter, losing four appeasers, including its closest star. However, a late wave of additions ended Sunday night with a particularly striking collection.
A’s free agent signed free agent Sergio Romo for a one-year contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It’s a $ 2.25 million deal, adds ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Romo’s news came just 19 minutes after the news that Oakland had also brought back his free agent reliever Yusmeiro Petit in a similar year-long pact. In addition, two days ago they acquired the left-handed Adam Kolarek from the Dodgers.
For 13 seasons, Romo has simply been one of the best relievers in the majors. He spent almost a decade with the Giants and won three rings, including a pass as a closest All-Star. He continued to gain defenses with the Rays in 2018 and Marlins in 2019, and then established himself as a man of reliable configuration for the division’s winning twins until the end of 2020.
Romo, 2019-20: 3.59 ERA, 80⅓ ip, 83 Ks, 24 BB, 10 HR, 3.84 FIP, 0.280 xwOBA
For his career, he converted 134 saves and 188 saves, with just 31 firing, a 91% success rate. Most recently, in the past two seasons, he converted 52 defenses / retentions with only four lost (93%). He’s also been excellent with hereditary runners, allowing a low 26% rate to score in his career, although he can be volatile in that regard year on year – for example, he missed just 4 out of 20 in 2019, but then turned all six that you inherited last summer.
Entering the age of 38, Romo is still striving as a consistent and effective last-minute reliever. He was never a difficult pitcher, averaging 80 km / h with his fastball back in 2012, and even though that number dropped below 86 mph, he continued to record outs. In part, this is due to the fact that his primary weapon is the devastating slider, which he uses half the time and peaked at 64.8% last summer. Mix a shift as well, and he was able to place batters on both sides of the board and avoid notable platoon divisions in general.
The A bullpen now includes the following names: Jake Diekman, Romo, Petit, Kolarek, JB Wendelken, Lou Trivino and Nik Turley, as well as many other sleeping candidates, such as Jordan Weems, Burch Smith and choice of Rule 5 draft Dany Jimenez .
However, the roster of 40 players was already full before Sunday’s two signings, meaning the corresponding moves will need to be made to remove two players and make room for Petit and Romo.
Analyze
Another great addition to the bullpen, with another reasonable salary. I don’t like to pay a lot of money for relievers, but I like to pay $ 2 million for an experienced arm who rarely gets hurt and never has a bad year.
The A’s would never replace Liam Hendriks because there is really no one closer to him now, and if there were, apparently, it would cost more than $ 50 million, but they managed to replace the configuration men Joakim Soria and Yusmeiro Petit on the cheap. They took care of Petit simply by bringing him back, and Romo can slip into the role of Soria, for whom he is a good companion – and possibly an upgrade, although Soria is coming out of a better 2020. The fourth reliever they lost was in the middle of the game Lefty TJ McFarland and Kolarek is essentially an updated version of McFarland’s profile.
Romo’s surface numbers last year were some of the worst he has ever presented, and yet he was still better than average. Statcast says he was even better than that and every bit of the strength he has been in the last half decade, with low exit speeds and strong blowing and strikeout rates. One day he will finally refuse, but it hasn’t happened yet, and at this point, he’s a quality addition to the A’s last-minute team.
For some reason, it always looked like Romo would end up in Oakland. They’ve been connected in rumors before, and he’s the kind of advanced metrics darling who is often available with what appear to be bargain wages. Now it finally happened, and he’s here to help a team of A’s 2021 – and the one whose bullpen suddenly looks very good.
If you have an extra $ 5 million to spend, and the bullpen is your biggest need, especially the last minute experience, then Romo and Petit are a great choice.