The Tigers have acquired shortstop Andrew Romine from the Angels in exchange for left-hander Jose Alvarez, according to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter).
The 28-year-old Romine will add another name to the mix of internal candidates to replace the injured Jose Iglesias at shortstop for the Tigers. In a career-high 123 plate appearances with the Halos last season, Romine batted .259/.308/.287 and saw action at third base, shortstop and second base. In his limited time at shortstop in the Majors, Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved peg Romine as below average at shortstop, but small sample warnings should definitely be applied, as he's played just 189 innings there at the game's top level. Baseball America ranked him as the best defensive infielder in the Angels' system four times from 2007-11.
Alvarez, 24, made his Major League debut last season and posted a 5.82 ERA in 38 2/3 innings with 7.2 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 40.3 percent ground-ball rate. Opposing lefties roughed him up at a .265/.321/.531 batting line, but he's been much better in the minors. At the Triple-A level, Alvarez has a 2.80 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 128 1/3 innings. He was named Detroit's Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2013.
Interesting. Jose Alvarez is more of a touch and feel pitcher. Never saw him as more than a swing man… maybe a 5th starter at an absolute top.
Haven’t seen any of Romine, any LAA fans have any input on him?
He is pretty underwhelming in my opinion. I believe his defense is rated pretty good, but he doesn’t hit much and doesn’t have power.
yeah, don’t know who Romine is, though statline from last year – as many strikeouts as hits.
would have preferred one of the Arizona SS’s, but guessing the price was too high (and we didn’t have it).
I don’t know much about Alvarez, but I am pretty sure that Romine was not going to make the Angels this year, and he was out of options. I also don’t know much about the Tigers’ other options at SS, but looks like they really needed someone, and a good defensive SS who *might* do something was probably worth a chance.
Romine has subpar offensive skills (which is an understatement), but is quite stellar defensively. He split time between shortstop and 3rd base last season, and played both positions very well.
Romine is a platoon/utility infielder with good defense and so-so bat. A #8 hitter at best. Nothing to be overly excited about, but a player who makes a formidable bench depth option.
Thanks.
Looks like he’ll be slotting in at number 9 and being the ‘strong’ side of a platoon at SS.
Romine has to be viewed as the favorite to start at SS for the Tigers, no?
poor Danny Worth. was about to make the team AGAIN, and now…
I would think that Dirks and Iglesias would be replaced on the roster by Romine and Worth. With Hunter, Jackson, Davis, Kelly, and Lombardozzi all being capable in the outfield, they sort of need a guy that can play all of the infield positions, specifically SS. Romine and Worth presumably fill those roles as starter and backup.
true that – and they can send Perez and Suarez back to the minors to marinate a bit more.
Barring any other moves I bet Stuart is correct – Worth and Romine will make it, Perez will go to Toledo and play both 2B and SS in case he’s needed, and Suarez will man SS at AA.
Romine is an excellent fielder. BUT he’s one of those guys who gets out of synch (especially at bat) if he just plays sporadically. He’s got good base speed as well. He should help the Tigers.
Maybe the Dbacks and Tigers could get together on a deal for Putz. He’d give the BP some depth and the Tigers do have a decent catching prospect in McCann.
Is there much of a difference between Romine and Worth? It seems like they just traded for a guy they already have on the team.
Romine is a SH, and perhaps a better fielder.
Romine gave up switch-hitting and now hits left-handed only.
He gave it up last season, but I’m pretty sure he’s switch-hitting again. Saw a few right-handed at-bats during spring training and the Angels broadcast guys said he was back at it.
I saw Romine in Triple A last year and he was the worst hitter on the minor league squad. Made me wonder why there was any hype.
He got good D!
.287 BA, .758 OPS, 15 SB/6 CS in 416 PA’s. That’s not that bad of a season IMO, he was honestly their “worst hitter” in Salt Lake AAA?
We also are looking for numbers that will be acceptable from a #9 hitter and his are OK. How many HR hitters does a team have at #9 anyway?
Can’t really see how that fits into my comment, was that meant for Thizzie?
Somewhat bizarre move this, to me we would have been far better off going with one of Worth (capable glove, far better bat than Romine) or Suarez if we wanted defense with no offense at all.
Not given up much in Alvarez granted but one of the internal candidates would be just as good a fill in for me.
Suarez is just not ready, he looked awful this spring in the field and at the plate when I saw him.
Romine bulked up this off season and started to show some pop. He actually hit a Spring Training HR for the first time ever. He also made two errors in one inning. He has size and versatility combined with decent speed. He’s always been more of a slap hitter though in my opinion.
And another door slowly closes on Stephen Drew. *sigh*
This will be a platoon. Dombrowski is taking a page from Money Ball.
Arbitrage value (as measured by WAR) right now is in low cost platoons. Romine is a league minimum player for two more years. With Lombardozzi and Krol, that makes 3 cheap players the Tigers got in the offseason. Hoarding these players will allow the Tigers to get more expensive players and keep the AAV of all of their players to be reasonable.
Just a thought, but #DKB (Donnie Kelly Baby) may be too expensive to keep as Romine AND Worth together will cost the same as him, plus they have Lombardozzi at the league minimum.
Romine is not young (28), but he should be at the peak of his career. 2.6 WAR in the minors maybe translates to 1/2 that in the majors.
Plus Worth has had some injury history. No reason to completely believe he’ll hold up for 140 games. Having Romine allows them to mix and match and have capable subs for other positions too.
DKB…love it.
Even without Smokey, DKB will still manage to find his way onto the Tigers 25 man come Opening Day.
Call it destiny.
Kelly is the left handed platoon in left with Davis
Kelly has not played SS in many years.
Must I’m not the biggest fan of this deal. Romine is nothing special but he was LAA’s one and only legitimate defensive back up to Eric Aybar at SS. Now LAA has no one to play SS if Aybar get injured and Jose Alveres is not a very inspiring return.
John MacDonald will likely be the all-glove backup at SS, and Grant Green probably the all-bat backup.
The Angels are going to open the season with 13 pitchers so only 3 bench players. That leaves 1) Back up catcher (Conger), 2) 4th OF (probably Shuck) 3) IF utility man (I assume McDonald since Green still has MiLB options left). Must say I am not really thrilled with that, McDonald’s offense is bad even when compared to Romine and his defense was below average at every IF position last year.
Mike Butcher in an interview before the KC game today said they would probably go with 11-12 pitchers….so there’s room for Mac
and Green with Shuck as OF utility.
Grant Green, John McDonald, Luis Jiminez. More than adequate. If you expect great gloves from your backup infielders all the time then you’ll be in for a lot of disappointment. No team always has great D from all of their bench players every season. There’s a reason they’re on the bench in the first place. I don’t know what minor league stats you’re looking at, but I’m seeing some pretty darn good numbers from Alvarez in several seasons; and not just ERA, but WHIP as well. His WHIP was at 1.080 in AAA last season. That’s Jered Weaver territory if that translated to the big leagues. More than likely, Alvarez will turn out to be a decent swing man, which is what the Angels and just about every other team needs. Alvarez could develop into another cost controlled asset.
Drew willing to do a one year deal NOW (after the trade) with the Tigers at $14MM. Source: Detroit Free Press. Worth it?
Nope keep the pick.
This trade makes no sense. Detroit still needs someone to platoon with Rajai Davis. Romine isn’t likely to be better than the internal options Detroit has.
The Tigers didn’t really give up much, Alvarez is an unranked prospect with an inconsistent minor league track record and only 38 MLB IP. LAA will be lucky if he turns into a passable swingman.
Good decision by tigers. Hopefully the red sox do the same.
I was honestly hoping that they would have traded for Kozma from St. Louis.
Since the Diamondbacks are looking for starting pitching, why didn’t the Tigers send Jose Alvarez to the Snakes for Didi? He has Major League experience and a young Lefty. DD must have needed to sweeten the pot a little too much, so settled for Romine.