Giants reliever Sergio Romo will be placed on the 15-day DL after being diagnosed with a flexor strain in his right elbow, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report on Twitter. Romo will not even resume throwing for two weeks, at which time he’ll be reevaluated before being cleared, so he’ll almost certainly be out longer than the minimum.
Romo had been generating typically strong results in his first several outings, but there were some warnings signs. His swinging strike rate is down quite a bit, and Romo has only recorded one strikeout in four appearances. Of greater concern, he has lost around 1.5 to 2 miles per hour on all of his offerings as against his 2015 average velocities.
It’s not clear at this point how long of an absence is to be expected, but as Alex Pavlovic of CSNBayArea.com notes, a similar malady cost righty Matt Cain a full three months last season. Of course, Cain had to rebuild his pitch count in a way that Romo won’t need to, but that experience shows the potential that this kind of injury has. Fellow reliever Carson Smith of the Red Sox is still working back from his own version of the impairment suffered over three weeks ago.
San Francisco will surely also try to avoid risking further injury by rushing a return. Certainly, it’s far from uncharted territory, and there are clear risks. Doug Fister suffered a velocity decline after his return from a flexor strain last year, while Cliff Lee was shelved for the year in 2014 after he suffered a flexor tear upon his return from a two-month DL stint for a strain.
It appears that Cory Gearrin will move up the depth charts into a more prominent set-up role in Romo’s stead. Of course, the club can also turn to high-powered righty Hunter Strickland in front of closer Santiago Casilla, so there’s sufficient depth on hand for the time being. It’s not yet clear which minor leaguer will be summoned to occupy Romo’s active roster spot, but San Francisco appears to be weighing a variety of options.
Looks like the Giants may be in the market for a reliever. Grilli for Susac sound bout right ?
if the braves wanted a low avg player they would have kept johnson.
lolololololololol
Dude Grilli is what, 38 years old on a one year deal coming off injury. Susac is a young catcher with hitting potential and 5 more years. No. Just no.
Not only is that a bad trade, but the Giants are not in the market for a reliever because that’s the strength of their farm system
Bummer. Wonder if they are going to bring up another pen arm or an outfielder, seeing as they were already going with a 13 man staff. Betting they bring up Mike Broadway.
I predict Dunning or Law. Broadway had a terrible Spring and is struggling in AAA.
Law is on the 40… Dunning isn’t. Hoping for Law.
You were right, they called up Law.
Bochy spoke highly of Dunning. He’s my bet.
speaking of the giants when is lincecum signing as well as the minor league contracts of cliff lee and johan santana?
Yeah Susac will haul a lot more than Grilli please stop he is young unproven and blocked a one year with an option would be exactly what the Giants would be looking for. Giants lost all leverage with Belt’s deal. I would of said Vizcaino for Susac but that ain’t happening on the Braves end. But if u think Susac is worth much more than Grilli you are nuts. You wanna say Grilli and a mid level prospect I could roll with that but in no way would you get somebody that could play a significant role in 2017.
Leverage doesn’t work like that when there are 29 teams that the giants can trade with. For example, Texas is likely looking for a catcher.
I would rather do a deadline deal like Grilli and A.J. for Plawecki and Montero but I don’t think the Mets would do another same division deal.
When u gotta replace somebody like Romo fast sometimes you gotta overpay. Please tell me wh you would be able to get to replace Romo. And who you think it would cost ? Other than maybe Lincecum comin back for the bullpen I don’t see who would be available at this time you don’t wanna wait to long and isn’t to many teams know they are out of it and have guys to move that can help this yesr. Sure at the deadline you could probably get more but you wanna risk it by waiting I don’t think do.
The biggest strength of the Giants farm system right now is bullpen arms. They will almost certainly fill the hole by promotion, not trade.
Who could replace Room? I don’t know maybe Gearrin, Dunning, Broadway, Black, Law, Okert, oh hey what do you know, all of these relievers cost absolutely nothing!
Ok, then lets make this simpler … its really hard to sell a guy an old apple when that guy already has an entire tree full of ripe apples in his backyard. Moral of the story … sell it as hard as you like, the Giants still don’t want Grilli.
The only way the Giants can improve their bullpen via trade is by acquiring a top flight closer. They have loads of depth otherwise, both currently in the majors and at AAA.
The Giants biggest strength is its major league team and to tell me that they wouldn’t be interested in moving a major league ready catcher that is blocked to a team with a top 3 farm system is rediculous. Maybe it wouldn’t be for Grilli straight up maybe a prospect would be involved but I can see a match up. Nobody could see a Grilli/Jenkins for Susec + ?. Hell could even be Jenkins straight up for Susac which I wouldn’t see happening from Braves perspective but hey they gotta start getting everyday players sometime and the more I think about it if it would take more than Grilli to get Susac I wouldn’t want him. I believe there are a lot of better young catching options that if I had to spend more on I would rather do that for.
You clearly don’t follow the Giants or their minor league system very closely at all. Gearrin or Strickland assumes Romo’s setup role, and the Giants bring up one of their numeorus arms from AAA who are ready to contribute as a middle reliever. Romo will be missed, but the Giants can weather his absence easily enough with their in house options.