Pirates claim lefty reliever Enny Romero

The Pirates have claimed left-handed reliever Enny Romero off waivers from Washington. He’ll get an open 40-man roster spot, so no move there is needed. The Pirates have said he’ll join the major league team, which will be necessary as he has no options left. This is obviously not the best news for Dovydas Neverauskas.

Romero has spent time in the majors going all the way back to 2013. He appeared in 52 games with Tampa Bay in 2016, posting a 5.91 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, 9.9 K/9 and 4.66 xFIP. In 2017, he got into 53 games with the Nationals, with a 3.56 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 10.5 K/9 and 4.30 xFIP. He hadn’t done so well in limited action this year, giving up five hits and three runs in two innings. The Nationals dfa’d him after signing Mark Reynolds.

According to Brooks Baseball, Romero relies almost entirely on a four-seam fastball and a cutter. He throws a curve occasionally. The fastball sits around 96 mph. Overall, Romero gets swings and misses at about a 12% rate. He does not seem to be a candidate to be a LOOGY, as he has a reverse platoon split for his career; lefties have hit him well, with an opponents’ OPS of .866, as opposed to .688 for righties. He appears to be consistent with the Pirates’ recent practice of looking for pitchers with potentially dominant stuff who are looking to put things together.