JoJo Romero

Romero was unable to win a spot in the Cardinals' bullpen to open the 2023 season, but managed to rapidly ascend the team's late-inning hierarchy upon his recall in early July. The 27-year-old even earned some looks as St. Louis' closer, logging three saves in 27 appearances before left knee tendinitis ended his season in September. While Romero primarily throws a mid-90's sinker to induce ground balls at a near-60 percent clip, he keeps hitters off-balance with an 86 mph changeup (45.3 percent whiff). Not to mention, the southpaw's 53.2 percent whiff rate on his slider was one of the highest in the league for that pitch type. This helped him produce above-average strikeout (28.6%) and walk (6.8%) rates, even if the sample was only 36.2 innings. Romero showed enough last year to continue to fill a high-leverage role for the Cardinals in 2024, but health has been an issue for him throughout his career.

Romero was exclusively a starter in the minors but was a reliever in his debut season last year, appearing 12 times and throwing 10.2 innings. He stumbled to a 7.59 ERA in those innings, but the underlying numbers don't paint nearly such a negative picture of his future. His 3.66 FIP and 3.53 xFIP indicated that he performed just fine, as he combined a slightly below-average 21.3 K% with a strong 4.3 BB% and 50.0% groundball rate. Whether the Phillies keep him in the bullpen or continue to develop him as a starter going forward remains to be seen. If he returns to the rotation, he'll likely need some more seasoning in the minors, as he produced a 6.88 ERA in 13 starts for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2019. The fact that he throws left-handed may cause the Phillies to elect to keep him in relief, where he'll have an easier path to a big-league role but is unlikely to find himself in a fantasy-relevant job.