The Tigers signed their first free agent of the winter Friday, announcing a one-year pact with catcher Austin Romine. The Moye Sports Associate client will reportedly be guaranteed $4.1MM and looks to be in line to see an increased workload with the Tigers — the same club that employed his brother, Andrew Romine, from 2014-17.
“Signing an experienced catcher was high on our list of offseason priorities, and we believe Austin will have an impact both on the field and in the clubhouse,” GM Al Avila said in a press release. “He’s a proven leader and game caller who has earned respect around the league for the tenacious and passionate manner in which he plays the game.”
Romine, 31, has been a steady contributor to the Yankees for some time now. While he was the clear number two in New York, he got a good bit of action in recent years when Gary Sanchez was sidelined. Though he carried a dismal track record with the bat until recently, Romine has trended up in the past two seasons, slashing .262/.302/.428 with 18 long balls in 505 plate appearances since the start of the 2018 season.
Romine has graded as a below-average framer but obviously impressed the Yanks with his overall abilities on the defensive side of the equation. He’s thwarted 28 percent of stolen-base attempts against him over the past two seasons while posting above-average numbers in terms of blocking pitches in the dirt, per Baseball Prospectus. Romine will surely be called upon to handle a big chunk of the time behind the dish in Detroit while helping younger backstops Grayson Greiner and Jake Rogers learn the ropes.
George A. King III of the New York Post first reported the deal (via Twitter). MLB.com’s Jason Beck and MLive.com’s Evan Woodberry added financial details (Twitter links).
interesting
I like this pickup for DET.
In before the super original wOrLd SeRiEs comments.
Help me understand the random capital letters…I can’t break the code for the life of me!
The alternating case usually signifies sarcasm or mockery, made popular by the Spongebob meme.
Thank for the info ryan – I always thought doing that was just the writers way of saying ” look at me I’m an idiot” but now there is meaning to it I will be more tolerant
The long awaited Sarcasm Font.
LOSER
BOOM! *sigh*
Remember that brawl a few years back?
Is his brother still on the team?
No
Did they run this by Miguel Cabrera? Lol. Romine is a good pickup by the Tigers. Solid backstop and hitter. Hate to see him leave the Yanks.
Agree has been solid as Sanchez backup. Gonna miss him in NY. Good luck Austin!
He won’t be the backup here. He signed with the intention of being the starter.
I said backstop, not backup.
Miggy and Romine will have a few beers…
Er, … scotch.
They can afford it…
Miggy and romine are swinging with haymakers
Detroit loves yankee catchers
Them and Pittsburgh
Ohh. They do?
Yes, they do, because in the past, they traded for Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart while they were with the Yankees and they signed away Russell Martin from the Yankees after the 2012 season.
I thought for sure the Pirates would be in on Romine. They are in need of catching help and he seems like the perfect guy for them. I guess we’ll just have to settle for John Ryan Murphy.
I suppose about $3Mil/3yrs and at that price, they may not be finished at catcher. They need experience there and if they get a bit of hitting, it’s just a bonus but they need two – can’t afford to be without experience with the young staff coming up.
I read that as King George III
Something of a career change for him
Opens the door to the Yankees signing Cole’s catcher. Martin Maldonado
There’s a dust up at home plate. Miggy and Austin Romine are swinging with haymakers
You said that already.
And next headline, Yankees sign Martin Maldanado
The guy that caught Cole for a whole 10 starts. I’d rather have Romine
Andrew is no longer on the team. That would have been more fun
It’s being reported as a 1yr 4.1m deal.
Get that bag Ro!!
1 yr makes no sense at all. Why bother if he’s not going to be there when they call up their young SP? It’s not as if they’re concerned about fielding a bona fide MLB team, so why bother with signing a veteran C if it’s for only a year? The only logical explanation would be Romine for a year as backup and another vet like Chirinos or Castro as primary C for 3yrs.
They spell it out in the last paragraph. He is there to help groom their young catchers, one of whom Detroit believes will be ready to start by 2021 (hence the one year deal at a higher than expected salary for Romine).
For 1 year? That makes no sense. One year isn’t enough time to get either of those two ready for MLB. One year for Romine would make sense if they had him backing up Chirinos or Castro.
He’s a backup catcher. They can just sign him again next year.
Backup to Rogers or Greiner? Not really. With the Yanks he was backup but unless they sign Castro or Chirinos, he’s the starter. With only a 1-yr deal, Det is risking the chance that he’ll go elsewhere in 2021 and leave them with two young C that may be no better than they are now.
Romine made a bet on himself. Most people would’ve guessed he could sign for at least two years (2/$8.5M?). If he has a great season, he can conceivably sign a 3/$27M+ next offseason.
Agreed
I would hope that in his contract negotiations, he was told he would be the starting catcher for 2020. If that wasn’t promised, why would he go there? The one year contract doesn’t make sense to me though other than him being able to display his skills as a starter and have the opportunity to sign a long term / better contract. There will always be an opening for a backup catcher if it doesn’t work out.
I’m hopeful Jake turns it around this year. Because, next year when they call up their young SPs they’ll need someone more than a career back up 32 year old. $4m for this pedigree of catcher is disappointing. Kade Scivicque has earned his shot, call him up
This is the greatest pickup in the history of the Detroit Tigers. The money, the reputation, the history will bring back the good old days. To think they stole him from the Yankees for such a cheap price is amazing.. Hopefully the Tigers will increase ticket prices and move all the seats back 20 feet from the field.
Well it sure is a better pickup than Jordan Zimmermann.
Spot on joefriday14, I think this was the final move in the rebuild. Welcome back Tigers! You’ve done it again, Al!
All the best to Romine and the Tigers. Awesome dude! NYY will miss him.
Solid pickup for Detroit.
Pudge 2.0
before or after roids?
This is a big loss to the Yankees. But I guess he was too good to be a backup. Wish him all the best.
Nah. It’s not that bad. He earned his shot.
He has 247 career hits, Ichero Suzuki had 262 hits in 2004. Probably a good sign though, considering the current situation.
Ichiro*
There goes the Yankees chances of repeating as division winners.
My Red Sox got rid of Leon because he was going to make 2.8M?
Leon hit .192 in 2019, .221 career hitter. Red Sox pitching didn’t do well last year.
Thank God they did!
As we should have. There is no point in paying multiple millions to a backup catcher who contributes nothing to the team when you can get the same contribution from somebody making league minimum.
Good for him – hope he shines in his opportunity
This is a rather big blow to the Yankees. Who will NY lean on when Sanchez does his obligatory 3-6 week IL stint with a pulled groin? This seems to happen every year, around the time when Sanchez is in a 1-28 slump as well. While Maldonado is a quality defender, his bat leaves a lot to be desired so perhaps the Yankees will need to use their 26th roster spot on a 3rd catcher? All I know is that the Yankees will miss Romine for sure and Detroit made a quality signing here for the money.
Dorothy_Mantooth, I agree, I don’t understand the Yankees. When Sanchez was in one of his routine funk-slumps, as he was coming off the IL at the end of the season, Boone plays Sanchez in every ALDS/ALCS game as he bats .129 and his defense was atrocious.
Meanwhile, during Sanchez’ regular visits to the IL, Romine’s second half was 325/.364/.550/.914 with a 139 wRC+ and .371 BABIP. His September numbers were .366/.409/.610 for a 1.019 OPS, 169 wRC+, .448 BABIP. And Boone benches Romine for every minute of the post season. Go figure. I expect he’ll do well for the Tigers on both sides of the plate. Hope they appreciate him more than the Yankees.
romine is bad. can’t hit or play defense.
Yet he is a much better fielder than Gary Sanchez will ever be.
This is the way
Their is reason Romine is a backup. Bad throws, bad framing ,no pop. Hes going to be shocked when he sees the defensive phenom rogers who has pop and is unbelievable defensively. When i saw him in the futures game…..I really believe Rogers is about to take over the league at catcher. tigers just need to not mess him up like they usually do to prospects.
I’ll bite. At what professional level has Rogers hit at?
Hit very well at AA last season. Should have stayed there the full season.
I’ll give you that he has solid AA #s. But he’s 24 years old. He struggled hitting AAA pitching in his limited time in Toledo. And his MLB #s are downright scary (51K/128 PA, -0.6 WAR in 35 games, etc)
He’s had ops over .800 at every single level in minors. Then he gets called up to next level. Outhit realmuto and yadi in minors.
He sucks … but AA has a plan … Cabby will be gone by end of spring training… injury buyout …. Zimmerman released early in training camp. This team is a dumpster fire plus
Sounds about right..don’t forget the free agents signed will all be on the DL sometime midway through the season or earlier too..I can’t wait to watch another year of this. Al has a master plan though. You keep signing these low level guys and we will be in the WS in no time.
Tigers are going to try to flip him…..but they paid 4$MM for him. They will not get that much in value of propsects if they can even flip him. They are better served using that 4 $MM money of 4 $MM and signing international propsects with it. They are backwards.
Dump the money into signing more prospects and development. Wins/Losses do not matter right now for tigers. This is time to use the innings to develop the future like the astros did. Outside forces making them panick it looks like. The older players don’t help the future.
Stay the course
They’ll only flip him if Rogers proves himself a regular. Signing a veteran catcher is a smart move for the Tigers because it gives them the luxury of letting Rogers mature in AAA rather than facing the pressure of 120 MLB games. $4.1 mill. is a bit much, but worth it if Rogers develops into a real MLB catcher.
For Romine’s sake I hope so.
What this signing proves is that Austin Hedges of the Padres isn’t worth a bag of sunflower seeds…
[Sarcasm]
This is a great pickup because it makes perfect sense. Romine is looking to establish himself as a #1 catcher with a productive bat to cash in next year. Detroit is looking to fill in until the trade deadline. By then, Rogers is ready. Detroit flips Romine to a contender who would likely pay a solid MLB-ready rookie. Romine gets to play for a contender and a really cash in next year. Everyone wins.
Could go south if they didn’t check with Cabrera. I’m sure that came up with both players.
Also, I remember in say, 1988, Dickie Noles and Gibby had an altercation of sorts. Dickie Noles ended up being acquired by Detroit. Gibby was noted for having welcomed him to Detroit with open arms.
As a Yankee fan who loves Romine and is sad to see him go, he is not a #1 and you will not get a young MLB-ready player of any value for him.
Here Al goes again, 1-5 free agents signed to one to two year deals, where they probably wouldn’t have gotten any offers till the injuries start rolling in during the season. And later on somewhere near the fiftieth game, they go down on the good ol DL.
Hip..hip hooray…Go Tigers Go 2020⚾️
I think in 2029 we may win sixty to seventy games. Al has a plan everyone, don’t worry…sheesh.
Here’s to Al’s 3rd #1 overall pick in 2021, and another to drafting such stellar position players. If this guy was any worse at his job he’d be a one-handed wood chip machine operator.
You mean second.
2018-Mize, 2020-locked in, and projecting 2021.
He’ll easily outperform Luhnow’s record of 1 for 3 on 1-1 picks. He’s already 1-1 with Mize.
Indians sit around and watch, as usual, until it comes time to rummage through the pile of players nobody else wants.
Real talk, is this the tigers cleanup guy (kidding….maybe??) I mean not counting the 1B they will scoop (Cron, thames type I assume?) their clean up hitter options are Miggy, Goodrum, Stewart?
Current Projected Lineup
CF Jones
2B H Castro
DH Miggy
SS Goodrum
LF Stewart
1B Candalerio
3B Lugo
C Romine
RF Reyes
Yup, I just threw upon my mouth.
How the guy even has a job is amazing, “building it back up”. It’s lunacy!
Don’t forget the Tigers lost four starting pitchers in 2019. I wonder how the Astros would have finished. Verlander, Cole, Miley ,Peacock all out for the season.
Your not even comparing apples to oranges there. More like apples to brussel sprouts.
So sad Tiger fans and the media are oblivious to Comerica having the worst seats in baseball. No team has so many seats so far away from the action.. The games are unwatchable. Tiger management even has guards to stop fans from stealing bases. No point to going to games.
Seats are angled, so you don’t look at the person’s head in front of you. That leads to being a little further from the action. I suggest taking some optics with you. I have always set in Kaline’s corner, so can’t speak for the other areas.
Need binoculars from most seats