The Phillies President of Baseball Ops chats with Corey Seidman about why the Phillies signed RP Jordan Romano, and hints at it being the only bullpen move the club makes this offseason.
DALLAS – The Phillies lost two of their top four relievers to free agency but filled one of the voids Monday afternoon by signing former Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano to a one-year contract.
Might that be their only high-profile bullpen move this offseason?
"We feel comfortable where we are," Dave Dombrowski said from the Phillies front office's suite at the Hilton Anatole. "I'm not saying we won't add. I never know what's going to go, I never know that. But we're comfortable where we are right now. If we feel we can help our club in other ways, if there's something out there that makes us so much better, we're still open to that. But we feel good where we are in our bullpen."
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The Phillies did not promise Romano the closer's role but he will see plenty of ninth-inning opportunities. High-leverage was the descriptor used. That mix will include right-handers Romano and Orion Kerkering and lefties Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado.
Is that enough?
"We like our guys," Dombrowski said. "We think Kerkering is ready to take another step forward, we've got Strahm, we've got Alvarado, so really you have four back-end guys. We like Tanner Banks. (Jose) Ruiz did a good job for us. I'm not saying that we would never add another guy, but I think if you've got four high-leverage relievers that we think we do, that's pretty good."
Romano did not pitch after May 29 last season because of an elbow impingement. He received two cortisone shots, then had arthroscopic elbow surgery on July 3.
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The Phillies put him through a physical Monday morning in Philadelphia and it checked out.
"We felt very comfortable," Dombrowski said. "It was not like a full-blown Tommy John thing. We felt very comfortable with it, we had access to all the medicals."
The injury was the only reason Romano was available in the first place. The Blue Jays non-tendered him in late November rather than pay him a projected $7.75 million through arbitration. The prior four seasons, he delivered a 2.29 ERA for Toronto with 97 saves and a .172 opponents' batting average.
When he's right, Romano's one of the best relievers in the game. If the deal works out, the Phillies might be replacing the production of Hoffman for one-fifth the cost.
"We like him a lot. We think he's one of the best back-end, high-leverage guys in baseball," Dombrowski said. "Our medicals on him have been very good. He had some surgery that worked out well for him, and he's been throwing. He threw last week. We got some video of him as I'm sure some other clubs did. He's already throwing in the mid-90s at this point, and so we feel very good to have a chance to sign him. (Assistant GM Ned Rice) did a real good job of getting that done for us."
So, what's next for the Phillies this week at the Winter Meetings? You can bet they're continuing trade talks and negotiating with outfielders. The top two available outfielders, Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Santander, might not be ideal fits, however. Both rejected qualifying offers from their former teams, meaning the next team that signs them will be stripped of a high draft pick and international bonus pool money. That's a stiff penalty you only want to pay for a free agent you feel strongly about.
"I'm not saying that we wouldn't sign a qualifying offer guy, but yeah, it's always a factor in what you do," Dombrowski said. "I don't really want to give up draft choices and signing bonus money if I prefer."
It's been well-established this offseason that the Phillies will consider trades for players like Alec Bohm, Ranger Suarez and Nick Castellanos, but they also are not going to make a move for the sake of making a move.
"You're always looking to get better and to improve yourself but if you told me that we went in with the same players we have right now, I still think we have a good offensive club," Dombrowski said. "We're not going to force things to happen to just get them done. But what were we in … in a lot of spots, top-five offense in baseball last year. It didn’t look like it the last four games of the season necessarily, but we have a good offensive team as it is. But we'll continue to try to get better, too, and we've had a lot of conversations with clubs, and I'm sure we'll continue to do that over the next few days."
