Pittsburgh Pirates News: Pirates Claim Enny Romero

The Pittsburgh Pirates have claimed left-handed reliever Enny Romero off of waivers.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates recent bullpen struggles, Neal Huntington went out and claimed Enny Romero off of waivers from the Washington Nationals:

No corresponding move has been announced, that will come when Romero reports to the Pirates, but Dovydas Neverauskas or Richard Rodriguez will likely be the player sent back down to Triple-A Indianapolis.

Romero has pitched parts of five innings in the big leagues, originally coming up in the Tampa Bay Rays organization and most recently with the Washington Nationals. The 27-year-old southpaw has a career 4.70 ERA and 4.09 FIP in his 131 career games and 138 innings.

The biggest draw to Romero is his ability to miss bats, as he has a career 11.9 percent swinging strike rate and 23.9 percent strikeout rate. The swing and miss stuff, however, comes with an inability to find the strike zone. Romero has walked 11.1 percent of batters in his career and he has only thrown a first pitch strike 53.1 percent of the time.

Like almost every relief pitcher in the Neal Huntington era, Romero throws hard and loves the fastball. He has sat at 97.5 miles per hour on his fourseam and 89.8 on his cutter while throwing each pitch 69.3 percent and 19.2 percent of the time respectively.

Next: April Is A Month Of Opportunity

Against 232 lefties, Romero has .373 wOBA against while right-handed hitters have a .301 wOBA against in 388 total plate appearances. The big reason in separation stems from the lack of strikeouts against his same side foe, striking out just 20.3 percent compared to the 26.0 percent against right-handed hitters.

The Pirates added a left-handed relief pitcher who is hard throwing and in love with his fastball. The swing and miss stuff is real, but the control has not been there for his career. Lefties over parts of five years have hit better than righties. But the Pirates need relief help, and they added another arm to give a shot too.

*Numbers from Fangraphs