Sergio Romo the ring king heads for LAD bullpen

Phil Gurnee ♦ February 6, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

Sergio Romo and his three World Series rings are headed home to the Dodger bullpen. For now it looks like he’ll be replacing Joe Blanton as the main right-handed setup man for Kenley Jansen. Blanton did good work last year but will only be remembered for his hanging slider to Miguel Montero that may have cost them the first game of the NLCS series. Blanton gets more shit for his one pitch mistake to Montero than the rest of the team seems to get for shitting the bed in games 4, 5, and 6.

Romo was born in Brawley, California to Mexican parents and was reportedly a huge Dodger fan growing up. For the first time in his professional career, Romo can help his childhood team instead of hurting them.

How much Romo has left in the tank is up in the air but there is little argument that Romo was a huge cog in the three World Championships the Giants have won in the twenty-first century. Even though Romo was tattooed in his first postseason appearance the Giants won that game and every single game he appeared in during their runs to those three titles.  Romo appeared in nine series in that run, and in six of those series he gave up zero runs while pitching in 16 games.

Romo was recently pitching for Mexico

“Being in the Mexican uniform, it’s been quite the experience,” Romo said. “I was able to be around family that had I not seen in a while — and play in front of family that had not seen me play in the States. For me and for my Dad, especially, it’s been an unreal ride so far.

Romo is basically a one pitch pitcher, using his slider 63% of the time in 2016, but what a pitch it is.

More than 2000 sliders ago, Romo was a good middle reliever for the Giants as they headed to the World Series. There, he faced Bengie Molina, who had just been traded from the Giants to the Rangers. After the Giants won, Molina gave the reliever “the greatest compliment.” The catcher told Romo that “catching it and seeing it in the box were two completely different things,” and that “if I don’t have confidence in my stuff, I’m a waste of talent.

Romo should replace Joe Blanton and might even be an improvement on him.