The Mets have claimed catcher Drew Romo off waivers from the Orioles and, in a corresponding transfer, designated left-hander Brandon Waddell for project, per a staff announcement. Baltimore designated Romo for project final week.
The 24-year-old Romo was the No. 35 general draft choose by the Rockies again in 2020 and beforehand ranked not solely as one in every of Colorado’s finest prospects however one of many prime 100 prospects in Main League Baseball. He’s a well-regarded defender with a cannon of an arm, however Romo’s bat stalled out after a stable 2023 season break up principally between Excessive-A and Double-A. His offensive output has declined in consecutive seasons. After a league-average offensive exhibiting at Triple-A in 2024, his bat dwindled in 2025 as his strikeout price ballooned from 17.8% to 25.8%.
Romo has gotten some temporary seems to be within the majors with the Rox however has simply 56 plate appearances below his belt. He’s a .167/.196/.222 hitter with a 37.5% strikeout price in that minuscule pattern. Romo carries a solid-looking .286/.337/.466 slash in components of three Triple-A seasons, however that’s propped up a bit by his stronger 2024 efficiency. In 2025, he hit .264/.329/.409 with the Rockies’ prime affiliate. Once more, that appears stable on the floor, however given the immensely hitter-friendly environments within the Pacific Coast League — Albuquerque, specifically — Romo was truly 25% worse than a league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+.
Romo nonetheless has a pair of minor league possibility years remaining, so he’ll give the Mets some versatile depth behind the plate. He has a protracted method to go when it comes to offensive improvement, however a great defender with a plus arm is a pleasant third or fourth catcher to have the ability to stash in Triple-A alongside Hayden Senger. Francisco Alvarez, in fact, is the starter in Queens and is slated to be backed up by journeyman Luis Torrens in 2026.
Waddell, 31, tossed 31 1/3 innings with the Mets in 2025 — his first large league look since 2021. That got here on the again of a three-year stint with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Group, the place he usually pitched effectively out of the Bears’ rotation. Waddell’s MLB return produced a pleasant 3.45 ERA, although his poor strikeout price (16.4%), good-not-great command (8.2% stroll price) and luck when it comes to each strand price (82%) and balls in play (.260 BABIP) induced metrics like SIERA (4.64) and FIP (4.54) to take a extra bearish outlook.
Waddell is out of minor league choices. He sat 90.7 mph along with his four-seamer final yr and matched the pitch with a sinker of comparable velocity and a changeup and slider within the low 80s. The previous fifth-rounder out of the College of Virginia tossed 244 2/3 innings of two.98 ERA ball throughout his time within the KBO and in addition had a pleasant 12-start run in Taiwan’s CPBL in 2023. He’s spent components of 5 seasons pitching in Triple-A and has an ERA north of 5.00 there, though that was skewed by a 2019 season wherein he yielded 59 runs in 61 frames. He’s posted a 4.22 ERA on the Triple-A stage since.
Waddell will likely be traded to a different membership or positioned on outright waivers throughout the subsequent 5 days. Waivers are a 48-hour course of. His DFA will likely be resolved inside every week’s time.
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