The Orioles have claimed outfielder Will Robertson off waivers from the Pirates, according to Jake Rill of MLB.com. The O’s have also claimed catcher Drew Romo off waivers from the Rockies, according to an announcement from Colorado. There wasn’t any previous indication these players were on the wire but it appears their respective clubs tried to sneak them through waivers in order to open 40-man spots. Baltimore’s 40-man had a vacancy but they will need to open one spot to make these two claims.
Robertson, 28 this month, is a popular bet for a late-bloomer breakout. This is the fourth roster he’s been on in the past six months. A fourth-round pick of the Blue Jays back 2019, he wasn’t really on the prospect radar as he climbed the minor league ladder. He would show some occasional pop but also struck out about 30% of the time, which limited his overall offensive production. He has occasionally played in center field but has mostly been a corner-only guy, meaning he needs to hit to provide value.
He seemed to find another gear in 2025. He put up good numbers in Triple-A to start the year, enough that the Jays called him up to the big leagues in June. He was designated for assignment in July and went to the White Sox in a cash deal. Between the Jays and the Sox, he hit just .129/.173/.143 in the majors, but in a tiny sample of just 75 plate appearances.
In his 354 Triple-A plate appearances between the two clubs, he lowered his strikeout rate to 24.9%, still a high number but a nice drop for him personally. He also drew walks at a strong 13.6% clip and hit 20 home runs. All told, he had a .289/.387/.571 line at Triple-A this year. That production translates to a 148 wRC+, indicating he was 48% above league average at that level.
Despite that strong production, his age and lack of prospect pedigree make him a fringe roster player. The White Sox put Robertson on waivers in October. The Pirates claimed him and held him for a couple of months before trying to pass him through waivers themselves. The Orioles have swooped in to grab him.
His path to playing time in Baltimore isn’t great right now. The Orioles have an outfield mix that consists of Taylor Ward, Tyler O’Neill, Colton Cowser, Dylan Beavers, Jeremiah Jackson, Leody Taveras, Heston Kjerstad, Reed Trimble and others. Robertson still has options, so he can be stashed in Triple-A as depth, but the Orioles often claim players off waivers and then later try to pass them through themselves. If they were to try that with Robertson at a later date and succeed, they could keep him in the system in a non-roster capacity.
Romo, 24, was once a prospect of some note. The Rockies took him 35th overall in 2020. As a switch-hitting catcher who was considered a strong defender, he got a lot of attention from prospect evaluators. Baseball America ranked him #80 in the league back in 2023.
His stock has dropped in the past couple of years, however. He appeared to become prone to chase in 2024. He only walked in 4.3% of his plate appearances in Triple-A that year. His .297/.339/.499 line and 97 wRC+ that year weren’t disastrous but his results were propped up by a .331 batting average on balls in play. Going into 2025, BA ranked him as just the 17th-best prospect in the entire Rockies’ system.
Here in 2025, his results were even worse. He slashed .264/.329/.409 for a 75 wRC+ in Triple-A, despite being aided by a .338 BABIP. He’s also received brief major league looks over the past two seasons but has a dismal .167/.196/.222 line in 56 plate appearances.
The trends aren’t great, which is surely why the Rockies tried to pass him through waivers today. For the O’s, they’re grabbing a guy who is still fairly young and was a Top 100 prospect a couple of years ago. Even if his offense doesn’t improve, he’s a glove-first catcher with options and can therefore be kept in Triple-A as depth. The O’s project to have Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo splitting the catching duties, with Romo and Maverick Handley also on the 40-man.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Dangerous move
Class!
You Babbling Baseball Bumpkin!
I wonder how many times this guy will be designated and claimed this year…
Wow there go the playoffs for the Pirates.
Is he out of options? At 27, it seems like he probably would be, but it would be a lot cooler if he did have one left.
(Maybe they’ll add that detail later, but it’s not there now at least)
Robertson has two options left. He was never a priority 40 man addition when rule 5 eligible (3 times) and was drafted out of college. That’s why he’s 27 with options remaining and under a year of service time.
Sweet, thanks.
No problem. It sounds like he’s nothing when I put it that way, but it’s not like there aren’t tools to work with and the O’s seem to develop bats well. His AAA Statcast numbers are impressive: 114.8 max exit velo, better than 50% hard hit rate, 14.9% barrel rate, and .380 xwOBA while with the Blue Jays AAA team last year. It’s just that he didn’t have the contact in previous seasons. He cut the strikeouts at the same time as starting to hit more line drives so it’s probably a bat path thing that seems more real than fluke. Good plate discipline and lots of hard hit line drives can overcome a higher than average K rate. It hasn’t translated to the majors. But the options are there so that it doesn’t have to be an immediate success.
The Jays have had some success with older guys who have taken their sweet time in the minors. Either home grown like Barger and Schneider who aren’t that old because they were high schoolers but did spend a long time in the minors. Or guys they took from elsewhere like Lukes and Clement. It’s not impossible that Robertson is just a late bloomer. But it probably doesn’t bode super well that he has options and has been DFA’d by 3 organizations already in the past year. Feels like a guy teams want in the organization as a project but doesn’t have the floor yet to be major league depth on the 40 so teams are willing to claim him and hope to be the one to sneak him through waivers.
Good write up, thanks. My guess is Elias will try to pass him through waivers at some point as well.
Not the orioles news we’re looking for
What am I going to do with the Robertson jersey I bought for Christmas? I’m such an idiot.
For a Pirates jersey, just tell people you are doing a throwback to 1971 WS champion Bob Robertson.
Good power but another lefty hitter that we have plenty of
Those starting pitchers can wait. They’ll still be there in a month or two.
Why was Colorado already DFA’ing Romo? I get that he’s the third catcher behind Goodman and Fulford, but he just turned 24.
I don’t mind it really. Romo played himself out of the depth chart and the Rockies needed to open up a couple of 40 man spots in advance of their #1 pick in the Rule 5 draft. They were full and would not have been able to make a selection at all. Now with Molina and Romo gone, they can get the best available player and potentially snag another player in the second round as well. I have never been too high on the Rule 5 draft, but when you have the #1 pick in anything you have to take advantage.
Saw Romo’s debut at Coors. He had the yips and lobbed high arcing balls back to the pitcher. That embarrassment has supposedly been fixed. Wishing him the best in his future.
Yeah. He has talked about that. He says that it started when he went to throw the ball back to the pitcher, he wasn’t ready and Romo didn’t want to throw it and make an error or make the pitcher look bad, so he started lobbing it. Poor excuse, I think. But hopefully he can get past it. Mental blocks have taken down almost as many players ad physical shortcomings.
Oh cool, we snagged Drew Romo too.
Bad news for Maverick Handley’s hopes of getting much MLB playing time in 2026, but I like the improved catching depth and Romo still has some upside.
Prove it 😉
I think either Romo or Handley ends up getting DFA’d before the offseason is over. I believe we’re full on 40 man slots and there’s at least 2 more big leaguers coming in.
There’s still enough fringey guys on the 40 man right now that they could carry both Romo and Handley if they want to get a look at Romo without DFAing Handley yet, but I agree that it’s much more likely one gets booted before opening day.
The Orioles used to have pitcher Drew Rom so may as well claim catcher Drew Romo. I mean they are the O’s!
These losers can’t even hit my weight, let alone their own. Such a waste of time writing endlessly about players who just take up space. Wake me when a billionaire opens his checkbook for a difference maker.
Jim Carter- “”players who just take up space”” . I think Will Robertson looks lost up there. Jimmy, you have any ideas how the Robertsons can get back to where they were. I know you were a real rocket scientist as well as peanut farmer and of course President.
Wrong. He’s the butler of Downton Abbey.
Danger Will Robertson…
Butters- Is that “”DANGER, Will Robertson !!”” or “”Danger, WILL ROBERTSON””!!.
I would love for Will Robertson to use the closing theme music to “”Lost in space”” as his walk-up song. It is kind of catchy and it fits well and brings a kind of energy that works well, in the same way the Timmy Trumpet does for the Met(?) closer.
It would be incredibly thoughtful of him if he did that for us. Might have to go on a LIS binge now.
The dynasty is stillborn
Os are looking for possible 3rd catcher options, where defense matters more. The Os have plenty of offensive potential at C. They need a C option off bench because one of Adley or Basallo will likely be at DH nearly everyday.