Oakland A reliever Sergio Romo takes one-year contract

The Oakland A reliever pen was ravaged by free agency early this winter, losing four relievers including their closest star. However, a late wave of additions was crowned Sunday night with a particularly hard-hitting recovery.

Sergio Romo, the reliever of the free agent signed from A for a one-year contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It’s a $ 2.25 million transaction, adds Jeff Passan from ESPN.

Romo’s news came just 19 minutes after it was announced that Oakland had also brought back their own free agent reliever, Yusmeiro Petit, on a similar year-long pact. Also, two days ago they acquired southpaw Adam Kolarek from the Dodgers.

For 13 seasons now, Romo has simply been one of the majors’ best relievers. He spent nearly a decade with the Giants and won three rings, including a stint as an All-Star closer. He went on to earn saves with the Rays in 2018 and Marlins in 2019, then settled in as a reliable setup man for the division-winning Twins until the end of 2020.

Romo, 2019-20: 3.59 ERA, 80⅓ip, 83 Ks, 24 BB, 10 HR, 3.84 FIP, .280 xwOBA

For his career, he converted 134 saves and 188 holds with just 31 hits, a 91% success rate. Most recently, over the past two seasons, he’s converted 52 saves / holds with just four hits (93%). He has also been excellent with legacy runners, allowing a low 26% scoring rate for his career, although he can be volatile in this regard from year to year – for example, he only let that pass. 4 out of 20 in 2019, but then returned the six he inherited last summer.

At the age of 38, Romo is still an efficient and effective end-of-set lifter. He’s never been a tough pitcher, averaging in the ’80s with his fastball as early as 2012, and even though that number has slipped under 86 mph, he has continued to register strikeouts. That’s in part because its primary weapon is its devastating slider, which it throws more than half the time and hit a record 64.8% usage rate last summer. Toss a change as well, and he was able to seat hitters on both sides of the field and avoid notable divisions in the field as a whole.

The A’s pen now includes the following names: Jake Diekman, Romo, Petit, Kolarek, JB Wendelken, Lou Trivino and Nik Turley, as well as many other dormant candidates such as Jordan Weems, Burch Smith and the Rule 5 Pick. Dany Jimenez. .

However, the 40-player roster was already full ahead of Sunday’s two signings, meaning corresponding action will need to be taken to remove two players and make room for Petit and Romo.

Analysis

Another great addition from bullpen, over another reasonable salary. I don’t like paying a lot of money for relievers, but I like paying $ 2 million for an experienced end-of-inning arm who rarely gets injured and never has a bad year.

The A’s were never going to replace Liam Hendriks as there isn’t really another closer like him right now, and if there was then apparently he would cost over $ 50million, but they did. managed to replace the installation men Joakim Soria and Yusmeiro Petit on the cheap. They took care of Petit by simply bringing him back, and Romo can slip into the role of Soria, for which he’s a good comp – and arguably an upgrade, although Soria is doing well in a better 2020. The fourth reliever they lost was mid-inning lefty TJ McFarland, and Kolarek is essentially an improved version of McFarland’s profile.

Romo’s surface numbers last year were among the worst he has ever presented, and even then he was still better than average. Statcast says it was even better than that and every bit the strength it exerted over the past half a decade, with low egress speed and high odor and shrinkage rates. Someday he will eventually decline, but that hasn’t happened yet and right now he’s a quality addition to the A’s end-of-round squad.

For some reason, it always seemed like Romo would end up in Oakland eventually. They’ve been rumored to be linked before, and he’s the kind of advanced metrics darling that’s often available for what appear to be bargain wages. Now it’s finally happened, and he’s here to help a contending 2021 A team – and whose reliever pen suddenly looks pretty good.

If you’ve got $ 5 million in reserve to spend and the pen is your greatest need, especially a late-round experience, then Romo and Petit are a hell of a good shot.