Sources: Phillies agree to deal with Romero
By Matt Gelb
Sources: Phillies agree to deal with Romero
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
By Matt Gelb
The Phillies will replace J.C. Romero with... J.C. Romero.
Two baseball sources confirmed Monday the lefthander will return for his fifth season in Philadelphia. The two sides have reached an agreement on a one-year contract, pending a physical.
Romero is in Puerto Rico with his family for the holidays and the physical may not take place until after Jan. 1.
CSN Philly was the first to report the deal late Sunday night.
Romero, who turns 35 in June, will likely take a significant pay cut to remain with the team. He made $4 million in 2010 and shortly after the season ended, the Phillies declined a $4.5 million option for 2011, instead paying him a $250,000 buyout.
The Phillies had found a replacement for Romero earlier in the off-season when they agreed in principle to a one-year, $1.1 million deal with Dennys Reyes. But the two sides could not finalize the contract following Reyes' physical in Philadelphia.
With the market for lefthanders dwindling, the Phillies chose the familiar one. Romero lacked control in 2010, walking 29 batters while striking out 28. He blamed nebulous mechanical problems as the culprit and still showed flashes of effectiveness, but the walks hurt more than they had in years past.
It's likely Romero will make something near what Reyes was scheduled to make. Last week, assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said the team still had Reyes' money to allocate to a lefthanded reliever even after signing Cliff Lee.
They could have held onto that money and filled the lefthanded reliever job internally with either Antonio Bastardo, Dan Meyer, Mike Zagurski or Sergio Escalona, but chose for experience.
When Romero officially re-joins the roster, the Phillies will have to make a corresponding roster move because the 40-man roster is full.
Good move he is a left handed specialist and if can corrall his control you know he's been through the post season and knows how to win...— phillysmart- I think the LH reliever job is Bastardo's to lose, so he should be motivated going down to Clearwater. On the other hand, could Romero possibly be as bad in '11 as he was last year? "Nebulous mechanical problems...." I love that.— ijj
2 wins in the 08' series and a smoking hot wife. The intagibles are there, the Phils just need him to get back to form.- maybe he will be better if he goes back on the juice....allegedly ;-)— your_mom_says_hi!
- Not a bad deal. They can still put one of the young leftys (i.e. Bastardo, Zagurski, Escalona) on the roster.
The way it looks now, assuming the usual 7 available spots (and that Blanton is not traded), the pen shapes up like this: 1. Lidge (closer) 2. Madson (set-up/closer when Lidge needs night off) 3. Contreras (7th inning/set-up when Madson resting) 4. Romero (6th-7th inning/lefty specialist) 5. Kendrick/Worley (long man/mop up man) 6. Baez (only here because of contract/mop-up man) 7. Younger Player likely, but not definately, lefty specialist (Bastardo, Zagurski, Escalona, or Meyer, or if not a lefty specialist could be Matheison or Herndon). I guess this likely means that Chad Durbin is no longer being considered for a spot, which is a shame because I think we still need a "2 inning guy", although that might not be as important with our starting pitching.— erformc1 - I'm ok with this as long as they are reasonable satisfied that he is physically ok.— Bob1
This is a better move than I could have hoped for; we know of JC and what he can do...johnnyu- Hey Bube ! Dollars for the starters and Pennies for the bullpen. Your gonna get what you paid for. Oh well lets hope R2C2 can give us 8 and bring in the Brad.— Pennbama
- Bastardo will be there anyhow and JC can always get one or two guys. If he doesn't walk them!— Koons
- Unless he's back on steroids, he stinks.— kmon
- This is a good insurance move. With all the money they've spent, the Phils couldn't hope that Bastardo or Meyer would step up and do the job. If one of them dazzles them in Spring Training, that's all the better. This gives them options. Hopefully we can trade Blanton and Worley looks sharp and beats out Kendrick for the 5th spot.— kyle_schmendrick
- I hope this doesn't hamper too many chances for the young guys. Gotta get them developed.— Lando_M
Comment removed.- Seems a righteous deal. I'm hoping he gets his overall effectiveness back and can be a REAL help when called upon.— TBear
- This makes sense to me. Hopefully he can straighten out his mechanics in Clearwater and get back to the effective pitcher he was. It also helps the Phils payroll too.— Blue42
