GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sergio Romo has infiltrated enemy territory before.
“My first game I played at Dodger Stadium, I had about 30 family members and they were all wearing Dodgers gear and here I am playing for the Giants,” Romo said Thursday. “I was like, ‘Whoa.’ (Giants manager Bruce) Bochy got wind of that. (Giants GM Brian) Sabean caught wind of that. It didn’t really fly well.
“But now they get to bring that blue and white out of the closet and wear it with a little more pride when I’m around, I guess.”
Born in Brawley to Mexican parents – “Born in the States with Mexican parts, right?” he jokes – Romo was raised in a Dodgers-loving family, then had to break it to them that he had been drafted by the rival Giants in 2005.
That might have been tough for his relatives to swallow, but it worked out pretty well for Romo. He was part of the Giants’ three World Series championship teams, throwing the final pitch to close out their 2012 sweep of the Detroit Tigers.
But the Giants’ bullpen fell apart on them in 2016 and Romo was found guilty by association. Despite a 2.64 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in 40 appearances, the Giants decided not to bring Romo back and he found himself on the free-agent market deep into the winter.
“We all understand it,” he said. “It’s a business, so to speak.
“Is it 100 percent surprising? No. Does it feel a little awkward and take away from the confidence and make you think, ‘Maybe I didn’t do it as well?’ I have to say yes. … For myself, yeah. I was thinking I would have more interest and be signed sooner. But that’s just not how it works.”
That it was the Dodgers who finally came calling and signed Romo to a one-year, $3 million contract is “kind of cool, kind of silly.”
“Go figure – here I am,” Romo said of switching sides in one of baseball’s most intense rivalries. “It’s not necessarily changing allegiances, but coming over here to what was considered the dark side for awhile … I don’t really see it that way. But for my family, it’s pretty awesome.
“For me, I’ve got a seat at the table. I’ve got a job. I get to keep calling myself a big-leaguer.”
The 33-year-old Romo has a job, but the Dodgers’ bullpen does not feature assigned seating. Other than closer Kenley Jansen, there are no defined roles and Romo was not signed to be the final link in the chain leading to Jansen every night – something Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made clear to Romo in discussions before he signed.
“I think the role, the spot in the lineup, what inning, obviously the usage – Sergio is open to that,” Roberts said. “Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of times when he pitches the eighth inning. But there will be other times he doesn’t.”
What the Dodgers do expect from Romo, he said, is for him to “be who I am.” Throughout his career, that has been a slider-reliant pitcher tough on right-handed batters. Right-handed hitters have batted .187 against Romo with a whopping 400 strikeouts against 45 walks.
“As we looked at our bullpen and the configuration, someone who was elite right-vs-right was something that was attractive to us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “From our standpoint, he’s one of the best right-on-right guys out there.”
Romo also represents a dash of variety in the Dodgers’ bullpen, where the other right-handed options – Pedro Baez, Josh Fields, Chris Hatcher, Josh Ravin, et al – are hard throwers.
“That’s good. We need that. It’s a different look,” Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw said. “We love spin rate around here and we have a lot of high spin-rate, high-fastball guys. Now we have a guy who can really paint a slider and get guys out.
“He has given us a lot of problems over the years so it will be great to have him around, for sure.”
Contact the writer: bplunkett@scng.com
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