Melvin looking forward to ‘free-spirited' Romo with A's

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Now that the one-year deal between reliever Sergio Romo and the A's has been made official, manager Bob Melvin looks forward to what the veteran brings to the bullpen. It appears Romo is open to any responsibilities as well.

“Talked to him for a little while out there, he seems to be a bit of a free spirit and that should play well here and fit in well here,” Melvin said on Thursday. “It’s good to see him finally out there on the field -- throwing, and did some drills and so forth, not really a guy that we’re worried about getting ready too quickly. An experienced guy that understands the type of pace that he’s on, but boy -- you look at his track record and he’s still getting guys out.”

Experience is right. Across 13 seasons, which includes a 2013 All-Star selection and three World Series rings with the Giants, Romo boasts a 2.95 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. And over the last few seasons, the movement on his pitches has still been as lethal as ever. 

As for what role Melvin has for Romo in 2021, that free-spirited mindset showed pretty quickly.

“It’s tough to tell at this point,” Melvin said. “It could be setup, it could be matchup, you know, in a leverage situation maybe a little earlier than setup -- not really sure yet. I think he’s open for anything, he just wants to contribute to a team and based on the fact that our bullpen seems to look better and better every day, it just means we have a lot of depth and we could rest guys more.”

“We’ll figure it out as we go along, but boy, every day it seems we’re getting more and more quality depth in our bullpen. 

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“It’s a really good pickup for us, we’re excited and doubly because of the personality he brings too,” Melvin added.

The A's bullpen is getting deeper by the day, as they reportedly have agreed to a one-year, $11 million deal with reliever Trevor Rosenthal as well, who could do a great job filling in for the loss of Liam Hendriks.

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