Drew

Romo

Romo remains an intriguing player because he’s a former first-round pick who is just 24 years old. He hit .264/.329/.409 over his 60 games at Triple-A Albuquerque in the Rockies’ organization last year, but this is perhaps the worst landing spot for him with Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel both in the White Sox organization.

A 2020 first-round pick long thought to be the Rockies’ catcher of the future, Romo doesn’t seem especially promising offensively or defensively. The 24-year-old missed much of last season and hit .264/.329/.409 over his 60 games at Triple-A Albuquerque.

Romo gets booted from the 40-man five days after being claimed from the Rockies. Now we’ll find out if anyone else was interested in the 24-year-old when he waived last week.

Romo has some prospect pedigree, but hasn’t hit nearly enough to suggest he’s more than a backup backstop at the highest level. The 24-year-old will likely compete for that job this spring in the Grapefruit League.

Romo heads back to the minors with Colorado making a flurry of roster moves in the final week of a season in which they will finish with fewer than 50 wins.

Romo hoped to be the Rockies’ starting catcher this year, but he’s only now making his 2025 debut in the majors. He hit .264/.329/.409 with seven homers in 60 games for Albuquerque, and he’s probably now only auditioning to serve as Hunter Goodman’s backup next year.

Romo was competing for the backup catching gig to Jacob Stallings, but that will now be a battle between Austin Nola and Hunter Goodman. Amador is one of the top hitting prospects in the Colorado system, and he should see time with the Rockies before 2025 comes to a close.

Stallings, 35, was re-signed to a one-year contract in November with a mutual option for 2025. The expectation is that he’ll see the bulk of the starts behind the plate and Drew Romo, Hunter Goodman and Austin Nola will battle for backup duties. Even playing at Coors Field half of the time, Stallings offers minimal fantasy upside for the coming campaign.

Since it’s Hunter Goodman and not Jacob Stallings doing to bulk of the catching for the Rockies, we’re not exactly mad what’s going on with Romo here. Still, this is getting pretty extreme; the 23-year-old has started just two of 14 games since Sept. 5. It seems quite obvious that he isn’t being viewed as a 2025 catching solution by the Rockies.

Romo hit .297/.339/.499 in Triple-A prior to his callup, but he hasn’t impressed offensively in nine games since joining the Rockies, going 7-for-33 with no homers. His average exit velocity is 81 mph, and he’s topped out at 101 mph so far. Of course, it’s just nine games. However, he’s going to need to show something this month if he wants to be penciled in as the Rockies’ starting catcher next year.