Not much has gone right for the Minnesota Twins this season, unless they happen to be facing a team from the AL West, whom they are 7-3 against in 2016. That’s why it’s fun to occasionally look down to their farm system for little bits of optimism–like the story of Fernando Romero.
Signed by the Twins in November of 2011 as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic at the age of 16, Romero was hoisted onto the Twins’ top prospects list by Baseball America following the 2013 season, debuting as their number 13 prospect. Since his debut on their list, his name has steadily fallen down the Twins rankings, making stops at 24th and 29th.
Romero is far from a household name. His Tommy John surgery in June of 2014 didn’t create much fanfare, as he was in the LoA Midwest League when the need for the surgery arose. At the time of his surgery, he became just another number. One of 120. That’s the number of baseball players that needed Tommy John surgery in 2014.
Even though he had only pitched in a total of three games from the beginning of the 2014 season until the start of the 2016 campaign, Baseball America still ranked him as the number 29 prospect in the Twins deep farm system.
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His first outing of 2016 earned him Midwest League Player of the Week honors after he fired five no-hit innings while striking out four. He followed that up with his start last Thursday that included another five innings, this time allowing one run on two hits and two walks while striking out five. His cumulative line in his first two starts following Tommy John: 10 IP, one earned, 2 hits, 2 walks, 9 K’s.
While Romero was nearly three years below the median age for players in the Midwest League two years ago at 20, he is now 22, and that gap has shrunk to just under one year. Even so, Romero has the tools to continue where he left off nearly two years ago.
Before the injury, Romero’s fastball was sitting between 92-94, which, according to the Cedar Rapids Communications Manager Andrew Pantini, is now hitting between 97-99.
Added velocity to his heater, plus a curveball with down action and a changeup that has the potential to be a plus pitch (Baseball America Prospect Handbook), Romero has the potential to not only stick in the rotation, but potentially be part of a nice one-two punch with Jose Berrios down the line.
Add in the fact that over 98 innings, Romero has allowed just one home run, which came off the bat of former Milwaukee Brewers prospect Michael Ratteree who has since retired, and it just confirms that nobody in professional baseball can take Romero deep. That’s an obviously overstatement, but there isn’t a player aside from Ratteree that has.
After reading Jeff Passan’s acclaimed bestseller “The Arm”, and realizing all of the work that goes into the recovery process with no guarantees of another shot at playing again, it’s nice to see a story of a player that is recovering from Tommy John surgery go out there and compete at such a high level, perhaps the best he has thrown in his professional career, and have some added tricks in-tow.
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The Minnesota Twins may not be what the fans were hoping for, but Fernando Romero has certainly given them someone to root for.
Update: Romero had his longest outing of the year on Wednesday night against Beloit, tossing six innings, allowing two earned on four hits and a walk while striking out five. He didn’t allow a home run, running his total to one allowed in 104 innings, and earned his third win in three starts this season.