The Cardinals have been getting a lot of calls about left-hander JoJo Romero, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Yankees are one of the teams showing interest. The Mariners were the only other team publicly known to be in on Romero, though it isn’t known if Seattle is still involved now that Jose A. Ferrer has been acquired from the Nationals.
Romero is projected to earn $4.4MM in 2026, which is his final season of arbitration control before free agency. With the Cardinals in rebuild mode, Romero is a logical trade candidate, and moving him now rather than at the trade deadline allows St. Louis to both land a larger return and avoid the risk of an in-season injury to the 29-year-old southpaw.
From New York’s perspective, Devin Williams and Mark Leiter Jr. have both departed in free agency, and Luke Weaver is still on the open market. Ryan Yarbrough was re-signed to add more left-handed depth to the pen, though Yarbrough is more of a swingman than a true reliever. Veteran Tim Hill is expected to hold down one lefty spot in the relief corps, and Brent Headrick and Jayvien Sandridge are other left-handers on the 40-man roster.
There’s certainly room here for the Yankees to add some left-handed experience to the mix, and Romero would be a nice fit after three seasons of success in the Cardinals’ bullpen. Romero began his career in the Phillies organization but didn’t start putting things together until he landed in St. Louis as the return in the trade deadline swap that brought Edmundo Sosa to Philadelphia in 2022.
Romero has a 2.93 ERA over 156 2/3 innings for the Cards since Opening Day 2023, and his ERA has gotten progressively better in each season. His sparkling 2.07 ERA over 61 innings in 2025 was the highlight, though a 4.10 SIERA reflects Romero’s lack of strikeouts and his mediocre 11.4% walk rate. The latter number was by far Romero’s highest over his three seasons with the Cards, and is something of an ominous callback to the control problems that clouded his time with the Phillies.
Still, Romero’s bread-and-butter is inducing grounders and soft contact. Romero has a 53.7% grounder rate over his MLB career, and his 35.1% hard-hit ball rate in 2025 was a personal best over a full season. While his homer rate has been known to fluctuate, Romero did a great job of keeping the ball in the park last year, with just two homers allowed over his 60 frames. Romero’s 22.8% career strikeout rate is respectable enough that Romero isn’t a complete groundball specialist, even if he doesn’t miss a ton of bats.
Some teams may balk at the lack of strikeouts, but overall, it makes sense that there’s broad interest in an inexpensive left-handed reliever with Romero’s track record for leverage work. That said, it isn’t a lock that Romero will be dealt, as Goold writes that the Cardinals themselves are looking for experienced relief help in their bullpen. If none can be found in free agency or on the trade market, it is possible St. Louis might just stick with Romero in lieu of a particularly attractive trade offer, and perhaps wait until the season begins to restart trade talks. Or, if the Cardinals land another veteran reliever sooner rather than later, the Cards might feel secure enough to start more readily shopping Romero.
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