Coming off of a career year in 2007, J.C. Romero got a nice payday when the Phillies re-signed him for three years and $12 million. The deal includes an option for a fourth year and the hope is that Romero gives the Phillies a solid left handed option out of the pen for years to come.
The Red Sox gave up on Romero last year and the Phillies scooped him up and he helped out during the Phillies nice second half. He held hitters to a .130 batting average with the Phillies and while he gave up his share of walks (25 in 36 1/3 innings) he was able to keep hitters off base most of the time. He gave up just one homerun and his 1.24 ERA was very impressive.
Romero’s job will be an obvious one and that’ll be to get left handed hitters out. In his career, he’s held lefties to a .226 batting average against. That’ll be the benchmark that’s used to determine whether the Phillies overpaid for Romero or not.
