The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Sal Romano, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll head to Triple-A Worcester.
Romano, 30, hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since the 2021 season but joins the Red Sox with 275 1/3 frames of MLB experience to his credit. He had a nice debut campaign with the Reds back in 2017, making 16 starts and pitching to a respectable 4.45 ERA in 87 innings that year. The 6’5″, 250-pound righty fanned 19% of his opponents against a somewhat elevated 9.4% walk rate and also kept the ball on the ground at a 50.4% clip. It was hardly a dominant debut, but Romano looked the part of a potential back-end starter whose ground-ball tendencies would be beneficial in one of the game’s most homer-friendly stadiums.
His sophomore campaign in 2018, however, didn’t go as hoped. The big righty soaked up 145 2/3 innings in 25 starts and 14 relief appearances but stumbled to a 5.31 earned run average. His walk rate improved to 8.2%, but that was accompanied by a dip in strikeout rate (16.3%), ground-ball rate (45.5%) and sinker velocity (95.7 mph in 2017, 94.3 mph in 2018). Romano moved to the ’pen in 2019 but struggled even more. He only threw 1 1/3 innings during the shortened 2020 season despite not hitting the injured list, and the Reds cut him loose after 14 appearances in ’21. He had brief stints with the Yankees and Brewers that season but didn’t stick in either setting for all that long.
Since that 2021 season, Romano has pitched sparingly. He didn’t pitch at all in 2022 and made just two appearances in the Venezuelan Winter League in the ’22-’23 offseason. He spent last year with Gastonia Honey Hunters of the independent Atlantic League, pitching to a 4.91 ERA in 84 frames.
Though Romano doesn’t have a great big league track record and hasn’t pitched in affiliated ball in nearly three years, he’ll join up with a Red Sox organization that is severely lacking rotation depth at the moment. Eighty percent of the team’s projected Opening Day rotation is on the injured list, with Lucas Giolito done for the season (internal brace surgery). Garrett Whitlock (oblique strain), Brayan Bello (lat discomfort) and Nick Pivetta (flexor strain) are all on the shelf, as is depth starter Chris Murphy — who required Tommy John surgery earlier this year.
With that slate of injuries, the Sox are going with Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck, Cooper Criswell, Chase Anderson and Josh Winckowski in the rotation. Depth options beyond that quintet include Naoyuki Uwasawa, Vladimir Gutierrez and non-roster righty Jason Alexander. Romano may not have much big league success, but he does carry a 3.87 ERA in parts of three Triple-A seasons. He’ll give the Sox some extra depth while they navigate a rough patch for the rotation.