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Minnesota Twins: Fernando Romero has sparkling debut

By Benjamin Chase

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 02: Fernando Romero #77 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch in his major league debut against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning of the game on May 2, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 02: Fernando Romero #77 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch in his major league debut against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning of the game on May 2, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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Fernando Romero debuted for the Minnesota Twins last night and threw a gem. Caan Twins fans expect similar going forward?

Looking for help as they’ve slipped to end April, the Minnesota Twins called up hard-throwing right-handed starter Fernando Romero to make a start on Wednesday against Toronto’s young ace Marcus Stroman. He threw very well as part of a 4-0 Twins victory over the Blue Jays.

Romero’s big night

In the first inning, Fernando Romero led off the game by getting Curtis Granderson to strike out and retired the side in order on just 12 pitches without a ball leaving the infield, and that set the tone for the game.

In the 2nd inning, Romero put two Blue Jays on base, stranding runners at first and second. The third inning was a fun ending as Romero had to work after walking Aledmys Diaz. He struck out Granderson for the second time in the game, and then to end the inning, he got a rare “strike ’em out, throw ’em out” as Diaz was caught stealing as Romero struck out Teoscar Hernandez.

Fernando Romero would give the Minnesota Twins the biggest scare of the entire night in the fourth inning as Justin Smoak led off the inning with a single and, with one out, Kevin Pillar added another single. Russell Martin moved the runners up to 2nd and 3rd on a groundout to the pitcher. After a visit to the mound, Romero rared back and struck out Kendrys Morales on four pitches in one of Romero’s strongest power pitching performances of the night.

Romero again put two runners on base in the 5th inning but got a double play to get out of the inning. After getting the first two batters out on 5 pitches in the sixth inning, Romero lost a battle to Kevin Pillar, walking him, and ending his night. He finished the evening with 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 5 over 97 pitches.

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What’s next?

In viewing a lot of Romero in his time in the minors, his biggest issue was not trusting his power fastball with excellent late movement and sink to it, it was being willing to trust his other stuff in his arsenal. While he did average 95.8 MPH on his fastball on Wednesday night and throw it 2/3 of the time in the game, he showed excellent sequencing of his above-average slider and average changeup.

The biggest thing for Fernando Romero the last two seasons has been coming back to health, and that was evident last season as he was in his second season back from Tommy John surgery in 2014 that led to just 3 starts combined between 2014 and 2015.

He seemed to hit a wall at 110 innings last season in the minor leagues. He climbed over that mark in his start on August 2nd against Montgomery. At the end of that start, his season line was 110 2/3 innings pitched, 2.60 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and a 41/115 BB/K ratio.

Over his final three starts of the season, he didn’t have the same velocity and the same break on his slider. It showed in his results as he tossed 14 1/3 total innings, with a 10.67 ERA, 2.09 WHIP, and 4/5 BB/K ratio over his final three starts to bring his season ERA and WHIP to 3.53 and 1.35, adding nearly a full run to his ERA over those final three starts.

Certainly the Minnesota Twins will be cautious to manage the workload on Fernando Romero’s arm, and it’s going to be unlikely he ever sees much more than 100 pitches, but in the 5th starter role, where he would get extra days off now and then in the rotation, he could fit well for the rest of the season.

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With a hard thrower, you often have a tough adjustment to the big leagues, as the velocity alone in the minor leagues can allow a pitcher to get by, but if he can mix well like he did last night, Fernando Romero could be here to stay for the Minnesota Twins.

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