Sources: Phillies agree to deal with Romero
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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.
To all the MORONS ripping JC for taking steriods,POUND SAND! The substance he admitted to taking was an over the counter item with NO WARNINGS on it (they were later added so the congress and MLB would not look like total idiots on this). His suspension of 50 games was ludicrous and it stinks that he has to bear the scar on his name forever due to the overreaction of MLB. Good signing by the Phils and welcome back to the fold JC.— flyerrod
Find someone else. He simply can't pitch.— Morty Seinfeld- Make the final caveat on that contract the following, "signer/player agrees that pay checks will be forwarded according to number of strikes thrown vs. balls and due consideration to 3 ball counts. If management, at any time decides to choke this guy with two on, one out or less, and he throws 3 balls to a poor hitter, said management may, at their discretion burn the players' paycheck." Then they can sign him.....geez, this guy drives me nuts!!!!!!!!!!!— stoneman
Hold your nose.
Comment removed.- The pessimism and negativity on this site continue to astound me. If I was less mature, I fear that I would begin questioning my own loyalty to the Phils because of succumbing to this negative "peer" pressure.
I'm curious of the demographics of the naysayers?-geographics, age, economics, etc.
On a brighter side, I wish to thank the powers that be on this site that this site hasn't shut down on me for two days now, and no sign of that obnoxious menu bar at the bottom. - I don't care if they sign Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, or Bob Gibson. If they don't get a big righthanded bat in Rightfied its going to be a long season for the pitchers trying to hold onto 1-0 and 2-1 games.— squiggs1
