Romo is open to any role with the Marlins
Sergio Romo doesn’t know for certain what his role will be on the Marlins.
It could be anything. And that uncertainty thrills him.
Romo, the 35-year-old reliever the Marlins signed Friday to a one-year contract, won three World Series rings as a traditional, late-inning reliever for the Giants before stepping into a cameo role last season with the Rays as an “opener.”
That is, Romo made five starts, pitched an inning, and turned the ball over to someone else. Call it closer in reverse. And the Marlins might employ the same strategy with Romo and others this season.
“The new ideas they’ve got for me is exciting,” Romo said. “I’m very outside the box myself. There’s fun ideas here. It could be opening. It could be closing. It could be any situation [in innings] one through nine.”
The Marlins acquired Romo, a veteran of 11 major-league seasons, to inject experience into a young bullpen. Romo has appeared in 643 games and saved 109 of them.
But the Marlins have other, nontraditional plans for Romo, using him as a Swiss Army knife of sorts. He might start. He might close. He might be used in the seventh inning, or the eighth.
“He’s been a guy who can do
In an effort to add experience to their bullpen, the Marlins on Friday signed Sergio Romo to a one-year contract.
a number of things,” manager Don Mattingly said. “As the game evolves, you have to be open-minded to be willing to do different things. [Romo] gives us versatility. He gives us more options late in the game, early in the game, allows us to use guys in