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.
Comments (67)
Pathetic! OK, with arguably the best starting pitchers in baseball, HHLO (hello) there will be many low scoring games, assuming the fab four stay healthy, there will probably be numerous games in which the Phils will find themselves either down by 1 or 2 runs or up by 1 or 2 runs in the late innings and THEN, they will need an effective, consistent bullpen. With Kudos to Amaro for re-snagging Lee (even though he made it easy for him) he still never addressed an erratic, inconsistent bullpen. If Lidge and Madson pitch anything less then consistent, the Phillies are in trouble and the tragedy will be, to waste the best starting foursome in baseball. Unless the offense can rebound and the Phils can compensate for Werth, assuming Brown or whoever, can produce in right field, the Phillies will still end up creating scenarios where the fans will where pace makers and hook up their blood pressure kits while they timidly watch the bullpen take the mound and hold the game in check. Lets hope that an unknown X factor shows up in Clearwater and provides the answer!— daystrum- I will add another comment, how many games do you all think the fab four can pitch into the 8th or 9th innings? Unless they can do that, the Phils will have depend on a still, shaky, bite your nails bullpen that still lacks a dependable LH bull pen ace. It will be interesting:-)— daystrum
- I meant to say "wear their pace makers and hook up to their BP kits" TYPOS!— daystrum
- So far in all these posts I've read that the Phillies are "penny pinchers". That Amaro SHOULDN'T really get credit for Lee since he wanted to come back. The bullpen is a disaster waiting to happen and JC could be the worst guy out there to sign. Give it a rest. The Phillies spent all their money getting the guy all of you wanted. It took a lot for Amaro to sign Lee. He's admitting the Phillies made a mistake a year ago. Something that just doesn't happen in pro sports and Romero had decent numbers last year, he really did go look at them. The Phillies will be just fine.— SFPhillyphan
- How can anyone say Romero will be okay, for 2 years he has been toast! He is done, stick fork in him and move on. Let the young guys have a chance.— jmb53
ANYONE but Zagurski! I can't believe that guy is still wearing red pinstripes.- ..los wild thing. but seriously this what i was talk'n about before. this is the phils brass 1st time aroung the block with this abundance of riches. they have become block buster masters. but they are still lacking the small moves that will gel everything together.
-sign lee in '09. cowarded up on getting doc at the time and didn't tune up bp. paid for it in the ws. lucky the phils o bailed them out in the nlds/nlcs.
-sign howard. but for too many years and too much dough. phils have extremely underestimated jason's value to this lineup. now they lose werth leaving a gaping hole in their lineup. losing werth also weakens our bench. something amaro did a very good job of putting together last season.
-should've signed werth/howard to 3yr deals each and napped lee. doc took a 3yr deal. he doesn't have a ring. but so what. aside from that, doc's resume is much more impressive than howard and werth.
-but the phils aren't the only ones. it really is amazin that the yankees have such a shaky rotation with their payroll. the cubs spend. but they are still garbage.
-j.c. is a better option that reyes. but not by much. if lidge pitches well, they'll be ok. but for a $170 mill payroll to have such a huge hole in their linenup and a shaky bp is insane.
- You have got to be kidding me! A lefty "specialist" with a 1-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.— PhightinPhil
- OK with this at a price of $2 million or less. Let's pretend, here: Baez has a better year, Madson is Madson and Lidge, while not perfect, is a top-5 closer. Romero walks fewer guys. Contreras has the versatility to be used where we need him and the loser of the non-Blanton (Worley, Kendrick) No. 5 starter spot goes long relief. Especially since we have Bastardo in reserve, anyone see a huge issue here?— eman
- I'd much rather have Romero than Reyes. At least with Romero we know what he is and what he isn't. Reyes' track record does nothing to suggest that he'd be an upgrade.— SteveS11
- AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL!! JC has got to be the biggest liability this team had last year. Each appearance he was good for at least 1-2 walks at the least. I would rather bring back Jack Taschner or Adam Eaton than Romero and thats saying a lot b/c i despise those two guys i just mentioned!! Getting Romero would have been addition by subtraction (i dont care if they dont have many left handers in the pen). TWO THUMBS DOWN AMARO!!!!— R2C2_PHILLY
- @R2C2 - - I, too, applauded when they bid J.C. farewell as an addition by subtraction - - - I preferred George Sherrill to Dennys Reyes, but the Phillies apparently did not - - - As a result of their infatuation with Reyes, we got a lesser version of both.— PhightinPhil
- This is where the "penny pinching" comments come from. George Sherrill, who used to be an ace closer a couple of years ago, signed with the Braves for 1.1 million. Now, Sherrill has gotten fat and seems to have lost his closer mentality but he still get LH hitters out, infact he holds them to around a .200 batting average. Now, even with all of Sherrill's issues, he can still be counted on to get LH's out CONSISTENTLY. Whats worse, is the Phils could have had him for less then what they will give Romero. Romero has proved since 2009 that he has a mere 50/50 chance of getting an out when called upon. WHy not outbid the Braves, and give Sherrill 1.5-2.0 million and get a sure thing against lefties, whom also has closing experience? Didnt the Giants just prove how important a strong bullpen is to your starting rotation. 7 strong innings dont mean anything if you BP cant hold them from the 7th on. Lidge was okay last year, but a lot of shaky outings. Billion dollar starting rotaion, but a ten cent bullpen. I hope some of these young guys can step up Mathieson,Bastardo or Defratus. Championship team with this high of a payroll shouldnt be relying on unproven youngsters without any experience in highleverage situations. I love having Cliff Lee back and I dont think they ever should have traded him but sometimes I think that money could have been better spent. Maybe Soriano and RH bat, ie Magglio. Lee will average 24MM per year, so you could have had both of those guys. I know they backloaded Lee's deal but still, it all averages out.
- If Howard, Utley, J-Roll and Victorino can at least produce 80% of their potential, with a solid injury free year from Polanco and then (in a perfect world) if Brown explodes to his potential and takes right field, that should produce enough runs per game, e.g, at least 4 and up, then the fab four can go deep and we can bit our nails and hope the (make your bet) bullpen can hold the fort for one or two innings. I was almost wondering if it would have been worth it to trade off Blanton, Ibanez and Polanco for Adrian Beltre (and maybe another reliever), then we would have a bona fide power bat and gold glove at third than put Francisco or Mayberry in left. It would be a worthy gamble but would sure as hell be interesting plus add another RH power bat to make up for Werth. How about this line up:
Rollins
Victorino
Utley
Howard
Beltre
Brown
Mayberry
Riuz
Not bad!
— daystrum - If Amaro can sign him for 1.1 mil OK. You still have a problem with his approach to the game as a reliever. He comes in the game in the 8th and pitches like a long relief man in the 5th. They are not paying him to miss the corners and walk the bases loaded, just like they were not paying Durbin to come in with men on base only to allow runs we couldn't afford. If Dubee can't define their jobs for them then maybe someone else should. You have the same problem with 2 pitch Lidge. He continually fails to attack the strike zone getting behind hitters then putting them on base. I don't have a problem pitching smart to the hot bat on the other team but historically we don't do that anyway. Which brings up another fault with the pitching. If we are getting scouting reports on the other teams and the guys in the booth know who is hitting and what not to throw them, how is it we continue to make the same mistakes over and over? All in all it comes back to the pitching coach and his direction of the pitchers. Mark my words, if this team plays smart offense they should have 4 twenty game winners by seasons end "if they stay healthy". Of coarse you need those running the team put the offensive players in win-win situations also. No pitcher ever wins without runs so that is another concern. As for the lead off hitter, you would get more mileage from Chase Utley in the lead off than anyone else plus give him the opportunity to use all his tools.— Wally 24
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The Phillies Zone is the place for up-to-the-minute Phillies coverage from the Inquirer.
Matt Gelb
Inquirer Staff Writer
Bob Brookover
Inquirer Baseball Columnist
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