The White Sox have been forced to make several changes at catcher because of injuries this season, but since being called up April 25, Drew Romo hasn’t been one of them.
Fans look at his .126 batting average entering Tuesday and wonder why. So an intrepid reporter asked Romo, as politely as possible, what makes him good, like …
“Why am I here?” he replied.
That certainly didn’t sound polite, but since he brought it up, yeah. What would you say you do here?
“I would say most important is I’ve done a great job with the pitchers,” Romo said. “I really learned from my past few years in professional baseball [with] scouting reports, attacking hitters, pitch sequencing, game-planning, being able to have clear communication with the coaching staff, pitchers, teammates.”
But he knows what fans see.
“Obviously, I’m not hitting good right now,” he said. “But right now I care more about winning games and after that my pitchers’ ERAs and not giving up runs. That to me is most important.”
The Sox claimed Romo, 24, off waivers from the Mets in January and sent him to Triple-A Charlotte. After beginning the season with Reese McGuire as their second catcher, the Sox cut him and called up Romo, who has earned the trust of pitchers and coaches.
“He commands the game so well,” said left-hander Anthony Kay, who threw six innings of two-run ball in the victory Saturday against the Guardians with Romo behind the plate. “You see the work that he puts in pregame. The communication in between innings also is massive. If you want him to do something different, he listens and he picks it up right away. Having open communication both ways is what builds that relationship and trust.”
Speaking of Saturday, Sox bench coach Walker McKinven, who doubles as the catchers coach, said Romo arguably had one of the best defensive games a Sox player has had all season.
“He had a very, very positive receiving game,” McKinven said. “He made that great play on the safety squeeze; he threw a runner out. Really sneaky huge game, despite what happened on the other side of the baseball. I credit Drew a lot for us winning. He handled Anthony well. He made adjustments when necessary. Anything he sees and adjusts on the fly is because he’s well-prepared.”
That work is keeping Romo with the Sox, perhaps even into the playoffs, where pitching and defense can carry the day.
“Measurably, he does well in things that we value, and that’s really propping up his aggregate value,” McKinven said. “He works really hard on his receiving, his throwing, his preparing for baserunning from the opposition. Just really a well-prepared dude, prideful dude about the position, which is required at that position. He’s a great teammate, and that goes a long way as a catcher earning people’s trust.”
Fans often can see a Sox pitcher, such as Kay on Saturday, emphatically point toward Romo and vice versa after a strikeout. But Romo is still working on certain aspects of catching, such as framing.
“The run value with framing is most important,” he said. “And also my throwing; I’ve had some errors recently. So making sure I’m in the right position to make an accurate throw, work on throwing from different positions.”
Romo is still working on his hitting, too. Since hitting five home runs and posting an .857 OPS in his first 17 games, he has zero homers and a .252 OPS in his last 30.
“We’ve been working on so many good things,” Romo said. “Everything that we work on in the cage and in practice is great. And then in the game, it just hasn’t clicked, and it’s super weird. But I’m glad that I’ve been able to contribute on defense. That’s my contribution to this team; that’s how I help the team win games. So I’m proud of that.”