The Phillies have re-signed veteran utilityman Andrew Romine to a minor league pact, tweets Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He’s in Major League camp today and will head to minor league camp tomorrow before opening the season in the minors (presumably with Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley).
Philadelphia released Romine late last week, but this new arrangement allows them to keep him without paying him the $100K retention bonus he’d have been due as an Article XX(B) Free Agent (essentially — a player with six-plus years of MLB service who finished the previous season on a Major League roster but took a minor league pact in the offseason). That may sound harsh, though it’s a rather common practice in this type of instance.
Romine, 33, doesn’t bring much to the table offensively, but few in the league can match his defensive versatility. He’s played every position on the field at the MLB level and has at least 200 big league innings at each of first base, second base, third base, shortstop, corner outfield (left and right combined) and in center field. Romine appeared in 17 games with the Phils earlier this spring and hit .270/.325/.378 through 40 plate appearances. He’s a career .235/.291/.301 hitter in 1323 Major League plate appearances and has a .721 OPS in more than 3000 career trips to the plate in Triple-A.
They said 15 minutes ago on the broadcast that he would, indeed, start the year at AAA Lehigh Valley.
Good -Go Pigs !!!
Yes!! Hope he gets called, and makes the Phillies team.
Yeah maybe in 2 years he can fill the void now Trout won’t be landing in Philly like so many of you said it was sure thing.
well Trout to Philly was the quickest way to get a WS, instead of Anaheim, so…
You’re proably right if the NL team in the WS is on East Coast the Phillies van charter a bus and get a group discount with that stupid $$
Maybe, If the NL team in The WS is on the East Coast.The Phillies can charter a bus and get a Groupon for some WS Tix
Your comment was nonsensical, and thus, invalid.
Does anyone ever pay that $100k retention bonus? I don’t think I’ve ever heard it happen, so what’s the point if teams are just going to skirt around the rules by releasing the guy and then resigning him? I think the rules should be changed so that the $100k actually buys the team something worth having. For example, if a team pays the $100k retention bonus, then they can send that player down to the minors but can call him back up to the majors later on and he doesn’t take up a 40-man spot for up to 60 days or something like that.
That way, teams actually get something for their money like this 40-man roster exception and might be more willing to pay the retention bonus. They can use it to stash a couple guys in the minors for depth and bring them up when needed. It’s good for the players in that they get some extra money and also makes these tweener guys more attractive to teams because they can use it to stash a guy in the minors for depth.
Toronto did for Bud Norris I believe
It’s about as rare as a unicorn sighting but it has, rarely, happened.
Warning-comma abuse!