Sergio Romo

Sergio Romo made his final appearance of his career at the beginning of the season at Oracle Park in front of a crowd of around 30,000 people in an exhibition game against the Oakland A’s. The Giants signed Romo to a minor league contract before Spring Training so that he could make one last appearance in the Giants uniform and end his career at Oracle Park. Romo came out of the bullpen to his famous walkout song “El Mechon” and was met by loud cheers and applause from the crowd. Although Romo was unable to record an out and got called for a pitch clock violation, this was still a very heartwarming moment for the longtime Giant. He was eventually taken out by his former teammate Hunter Pence prompting one last applause from the Giants crowd. Romo then went into the dugout and gave hugs to all of his teammates and coaches before one final curtain call. 

Romo was a reliever for his entire career and spent a long time as a star closer for the San Francisco Giants. Romo was a fan favorite in San Francisco, closing out many games and helping lead the Giants to 3 World Series titles in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Romo was selected by the Giants with the 852nd overall pick in the 28th round of the 2005 MLB Draft. The great success of this Bay Area legend was quite remarkable considering the fact that the 28th round of the draft no longer even exists in Major League Baseball. Romo spent his first 9 years in MLB with the Giants. During that time, Romo made his sole all star appearance in 2013 and racked up 84 saves while donning the Giants uniform. Romo relied on 4 pitches over the course of his career being his slider, 4-seam fastball, sinker, and changeup. Romo mainly utilized his slider as he threw it around 60 percent of the time over the course of his career. Romo also threw his 4-seamer and his sinker about 30 percent of the time combined and his changeup around 10 percent of the time. Romo’s fastball topped out in the low 90’s and averaged around 87-89 mph during his peak years. This made him 6th percentile in fastball velocity in 2015 but he was able to make up for it as his average exit velocity, hard hit rate, barrel rate, strikeout rate, walk rate, whiff rate, and chase rate were all between the 94th and the 98th percentile. The walk rate being in the 96th percentile shows that Romo relied on his consistent accuracy and location skills while on the mound. Romo finished his career having logged 722.2 innings pitched at the major league level. In that time, he struck out 789 batters en route to 137 saves and a 3.21 ERA. Romo also had a career WAR of 10 and a 42-36 win-loss record. 

Romo has recently reentered the San Francisco Giants community and organization following his retirement. He went to Mexico during a recent trip with the organization to Mexico City for the Mexico City Series that the Giants had with the Padres. Romo has also been seen interacting with many players pregame and sharing his many insights from his career. I look forward to seeing his influence on the Giants and his involvement within the organization in the future. Sergio Romo had an incredible career and was one of my favorite players during his time as a Giant.

Citations:

Romo, Sergio. “Sergio Romo Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com.” Baseballsavant.com, 2022, baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/sergio-romo-489265?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb. Accessed 29 May 2023.

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Baseball Reference. “Sergio Romo.” Baseball-Reference.com, 2022, www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/romose01.shtml. Accessed 30 May 2023.