Let’s face it, when the Dodgers signed veteran free agent right-hander Sergio Romo, it came with a lot of mixed feelings for Dodger fans. First and foremost, he was one of them – a member of the Hated Ones, including several years as the Giants closer. Secondly, he had pretty good success against the Dodgers over his nine-year MLB career with a 3-3 record, 1.93 ERA, 16 saves, a .173 batting average against, a 0.791 WHIP, while striking out 64, walking 11 and allowing only five Dodger home runs. Like I said, pretty good success against the Dodgers.

But once Dodger fans managed to choke down that jagged little pill, Romo made it abundantly clear that he had always wanted to be a Dodger, as did his father and had his grandfather. Stories quickly spread about how the three of them – and the rest of his family – were lifelong Dodger fans from Brawley, California, a small farming community located a mere 25 miles from the Mexican border, where his family had migrated to before Sergio was born.

Romo has looked exceptionally sharp since his very first bullpen session on February 16.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

During his first week in Dodgers spring training camp it was impossible to ever see Romo without a huge and infectious smile on his face. It was also (nearly) impossible to ever see him walk past a fan who wanted his autograph. I mean, we’re talking several hours of signing autographs here. Without having thrown a single pitch in a spring training game yet, the just-turned 34-year old (on March 4) had already become a huge fan favorite.

There hasn’t been a Dodger fan yet that Romo hasn’t stopped to sign an autograph for, especially kids.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But no sooner had Romo arrived at major league camp that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters that the 5′-11″ / 185-pound bearded right-hander would most likely be used as a situational right-hander against right-handed hitters because of his enormously successful and absolutely filthy slider that is nearly impossible for righties to hit. Granted, there was no way on earth that Romo would ever return to his closer role with the Dodgers – certainly not after they just re-signed franchise saves leader Kenley Jansen to a five-year / $80 million contract that will take him through the 2021 season – but most Dodger fans believed that Romo had been brought on board (for one year at $3 million) to be Jansen’s eighth-inning set-up man.

Roberts reiterated this point on Monday when he yet again told reporters that Romo wasn’t necessarily going to be his bridge to Kenley Jansen.

We all get that 11 games into spring training is way too early to begin assigning roles – aside from the few obviously ones, of course – but it is also way to early to eliminate them as well. And although Romo has appeared in only two spring training games thus far for the Dodgers and pitched only two total innings, he has yet to give up a run and has allowed only one hit.

But wait, there’s more!

Of the seven batters he has faced thus far, Romo struck out six of them; and of the 20 pitches he has made this spring, all of them have been for strikes – all 20 of them.

Romo has yet to throw a non-strike this spring.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNetLA)

Simply put and with all due respect for Doc – and it is immense – the Dodgers would be hard pressed to find a better set-up man for Jansen than Sergio Romo – at least at this point in time.

Obviously two innings is a ridiculously low sample size to base a final decision on, but it is also a ridiculously low sample size to even consider eliminating Romo as the Dodgers eighth-inning guy too. In other words, let’s see how the remainder of the spring goes for Romo and the rest of the guys before jumping to this conclusion.

By no means is this in any way meant to be a slam on the 2016 National League Manager of the Year, but there is still a lot of spring training innings to be pitched and it might be best to see how it all plays out before appointing or eliminating specific bullpen roles.

Play Ball!