Bye, bye Romine.
The Angels have dealt 28-year-old infielder Andrew Romine to the Tigers in exchange for lefty Jose Alvarez, according to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports.
For the Tigers, Romine’s acquisition figures to be a partial solution to Jose Iglesias’ recent injury that will cost him between four and six months, and significantly dents the Tigers’ lineup. Barring an unforeseen acquisition, Detroit figures to head into the season with Romine as either their starting shortstop or the left side of a platoon.
Romine was a highly touted defensive shortstop coming up through the minors with Baseball America ranking him as the system’s best defensive infielder four times from 2007 to 2011. However, those skills have failed to translate to the big leagues, albeit in a limited sample size. In just 189 career innings at the position, he has a UZR/150 of -1.9.
Romine was primarily used as a utility option during his time with the Angels, as he was capable of playing second and third base to go along with shortstop. He played in just 74 big league games from 2010-2013, hitting .250/.303/.270 with a 0.1 WAR in 174 plate appearances. He has been far more successful in the minors where he has a career .721 OPS.
Romine’s loss doesn’t really effect the Angels’ 2014 plans all that much considering they already had a plethora of Quad-A middle infielders, such as Tommy Field, John McDonald, and Matt Long, as well as some promising youngsters in Grant Green, Alex Yarbrough, and Taylor Lindsey.
Meanwhile, Alvarez immediately steps in as the team’s 6th or 7th starter, adding depth to a painfully thin organizational rotation crop. The 24-year-old southpaw made his big league debut last year, pitching 38.2 innings for Detroit in a swingman sort of role (he started 6 of his 14 appearances) while striking out 31 batters and posting a 5.19 FIP.
Before his debut, the Venezuelan, originally signed by the Red Sox in 2005, was outstanding at the Triple-A level, posting a 2.80 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 8.04 K/9, and 1.75 BB/9 in 128.2 innings. He owns a career minor league ERA of 3.50 and K/BB of 3.23.