10:20am: Romero and the Giants have indeed agreed to a Minor League contract, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (via Twitter).
MAY 11, 7:09am: The Giants and Romero are making progress on a deal and could have something finalized as soon as today, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Romero would report to extended Spring Training with the Giants upon completion of the deal.
MAY 10: The Giants are close to signing former Blue Jays starting pitcher Ricky Romero, Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun tweets. The deal will, presumably, be of the minor-league variety. The Jays released the 30-year-old lefty last month. Romero is a client of the Legacy Agency.
Romero appeared to be blossoming into one of the game’s better young starters in 2011, when he posted a 2.92 ERA in 225 innings with Toronto. He struggled the following season, though, leading the American League in walks, then had elbow surgery and never returned to his previous form. He last appeared in the bigs in 2013. Lately, he’s battled knee injuries, and Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said his team decided to release Romero because they didn’t think he would recover in time to contribute this year. The Jays are on the hook for the remainder of Romero’s $7.5MM 2015 salary, plus a $600K buyout.
Uh, ok?
Would be cool if they fixed him. Apperently he wasn’t anywhere close to helping the Jays in AAA of all places this year… So there’s that.
Must be a combined case of wanting pitching depth/hoping their organization can mend his woes even slightly. Not a move to write home about by any means, but I guess I get it if it’s a minor league deal.
It’s a minor league deal and he comes cheap. The Blue Jays take on the majority of his salary so signing Romero to a minor league deal to try and see if he has something left or can be fixed really has no downside.
Yea it’s a basic “try to snag lightning in a bottle” move. Literally there’s nothing to lose for the giants
Well,that’s why I said if it’s a minor league deal I get it,haha. Really not much to lose but some patience in this case, it’s worth taking a look at such a low risk.
Yea pretty much haha. And it’s not like patience is really a problem. Teams have to be patient with prospects all the time. Why not the same for a minor league signing.
Supposedly his knees are so shot that he has trouble standing for long periods of time, let alone pitching.
Best case scenario for him sounds like a 1 inning reliever or a LOOGY
one of the weird things about him was his reverse splits
Given the Rays’ hurting rotation, I thought they’d be the ones to sign someone like Romero for AAA depth. “depth”….
This is going to work out the same way their Dontrelle Willis signing went.
Deedin’