Toronto Blue Jays free agent target: Sergio Romo

Reuben Gasee of Jays Journal will be doing an article series of mid-tier free agents the Blue Jays should pursue. This article will take a look at Sergio Romo.

As with the whole Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff, there remain tons of upside in both the rotation and bullpen. If everything goes to plan and everyone does well, it can be one of the best pitching staffs across the league.

That’s a big if though and a lot to ask, as many things would need to their way. To help alleviate those hopes in case things go sideways with how pitchers perform, the Blue Jays would be smart to bring someone with experience and more of a sure thing.

Someone they could potentially add to the late inning mix of the bullpen is 13-year veteran Sergio Romo.

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Romo will enter the 2021 season at the age of 38 after spending the past 13 years combined between the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins.

In every season since his rookie year, he’s struck out more batters than the amount of hits he’s given up. This past season, he pitched in 20 innings over 24 appearances striking out 23 compared to 16 hits given up for an opponent average of .211 and an ERA of 4.05. He also got 10 holds and five saves blowing one.

While Romo does have closing experience (134 career saves), he’s better suited to pitch in the eighth inning, which he’s done so more often in the big leagues. When he was playing for the Giants, he was used in the eighth inning to set up Brian Wilson, in which both were a dynamic backend of the bullpen for the team which helped them win three World Series rings.

He has 188 career holds, which rank 10th all time and fifth among active relievers. To go along with that, he holds a career ERA of 2.95 and an opponent average of .212.

In 2019, he pitched in the eighth inning 23 times recording a 3.13 ERA and an opponent average of .198. Those marks were better than the numbers he posted in the seventh and ninth innings that season.

If Romo was brought on to the Blue Jays’ roster, he could be the team’s go-to eighth inning guy, but that would mean the ninth inning would still be a competition between Jordan Romano and Rafael Dolis.

What Romo would really bring though is experience to a young Blue Jays bullpen.