The Orioles have acquired J.C. Romero from the Indians for minor league infielder Carlos Rojas, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com (all Twitter links). The southpaw signed a minor league deal with Baltimore in May, but exercised his opt-out clause in July.
Romero, 36, signed a minor league contract with the Indians last month. He allowed nine runs in eight innings for the Cardinals earlier this season, and has pitched to a 2.74 ERA in 23 Triple-A innings since. Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain-Dealer says (on Twitter) that Romero could have opted out of his contract with Cleveland on Wednesday, but they weren't ready to call him up.
Rojas, 28, hit .226/.285/.248 in 147 plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A this season. He spent some time in the Cubs' farm system earlier in his career and has never been called up to the big leagues.
I really think the O’s traded for Kelly Shoppach and he’s in disquise as J.C. Romero.
In all seriousness, was the player to be named later (Box of Baseballs) available to get this trade done. I can’t believe we gave the Indians anything.
Rojas is 28 and has a career .293 minor league OBP. That seems like a good deal for the Orioles.
The Red Sox don’t need more lefty relievers at this point, especially not ones who were very mediocre the last time they were in Boston =
Speaking of lefty relievers in Boston.. Why doesn’t Rich Hill just rent one Of Dr James Andrew’s waiting rooms?
Eh, no real need to wait when it’s minor league filler being exchanged. At least JC Romero has a slim chance to contribute to the MLB club.
This is a head scratcher, didnt we already release him from the minors this year?
JC was so effective with STL this year that Duquette figured he was worth a shot as one of his rehab specials..
J.C., I think it might be time to hang ’em up.
@gothapotamus90210
Remember Lefties have nine lives, J.C. still has about two left in him!
Touché. To this day, I still give my Dad grief for not making me throw left handed.
Uh, I don’t know that it works like that …
Being LH still is no guarantee. Some of us lefties realized after HS we needed to find something else to do.LOL
I guess he’s in the mix again with Zack Phillips to be the second lefty in the pen in September.
You can never have enough quality lefty relievers. If Romero has regained his form, this is a steal for the O’s.
Good pickup for the Orioles a good lefty reliever. I don’t know why the Cardinals got rid of him though. They need all the bullpen help they can get. And he’s a really good reliever and could help alot. And they were showing little steps to improving their bullpen like recquiring Edward Mujica. I’m surprised the Mets didn’t go hard after Romero they’re another team that needs some bullpen help. But otherwise a good pick up for the O’s.
The Cards let him go because he was pretty terrible for them, so perhaps they thought he was done. He has seemed to find himself again in AAA, so maybe he can still be a matchup guy for the O’s.