Roster Move: Cubs ink righty pitcher Tommy Romero

Reinhold Matay - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 10 hours ago

Lost in the shuffle of all the Baseball action going on was another minor league signing by the Cubs. Once again, it was a pitcher being brought in as right-hander Tommy Romero, and the Cubs agreed to a Minor League contract. Romero was initially sent to the ACL Cubs, but is now on the Iowa Cubs roster where he will make his season debut for them on Wednesday.

Initially, with the Giants to begin the season, Romero elected to hit free agency instead of remaining with the Giants organization and has now signed a new deal with the Cubs to begin the next chapter of his baseball career. One of the similarities that comes with this deal is Romero is another one of those Thread Athletics products as the Cubs have now signed four players from Thread Athletics.

That was the goal when the Cubs signed Tyler Zombro to be their head of the entire pitching infrastructure in Chicago. Zombro was part of the Thread for several years and now has the keys to helping the Cubs find quality arms that most organizations often overlook. Romero could be another one of those arms as the Cubs are eager to see what he can bring to the table.

The Seattle Mariners initially drafted the 27-year-old in the 15th round of the 2017 MLB draft and has since bounced around several different organizations. He spent most of his time in the Tampa Bay organization, where he emerged as one of their more reliable starting pitcher options for several seasons.

Across 169 career minor League games (100 coming as starts), Romero was about as good as anyone could hope for, going 55-25 with a 3.08 ERA. That included a 4-1 record in 2024 with an ERA of 3.18. The 2025 season was a significantly different showing for Romero, as he began the season in the Mexican League, posting a 7.27 ERA in his two appearances. Compare that to his 10.80 ERA across four career MLB appearances, and Romero may be another one of those MLB fringe guys who is a great minor league option, but not so much an MLB option.

As tough as it would be for him to hear that, it's not the worst thing in the world, as every team needs a reliable Minor Leaguer on their roster. What Romero brings to the table is a rarity in the AAA game, so having him be a part of this organization is going to help the Cubs in more ways than one. Expected to be a starter for the time being, Romero also has experience coming out of the pen, and you have to wonder if the Cubs are going to experiment with him in some aspect.

Not the hardest thrower by any means, Romero uses an extreme arm angle to be successful, as he has the most extreme arm angle of the Statcast era. That tops Kenley Jansen and his 72-degree arm slot, as Romero has been measured at 74 degrees for his arm slot. That alone creates plenty of deception on his delivery and can make it tough for a hitter to pick up the ball.

Given the success that Chris Flexen has seen this season by going from an upper 60s arm slot to low 70s, the Cubs are hoping Romero could follow a similar trend, and that could go a long way for him getting back on track. Primarily a cut fastball pitcher, Romero has received plenty of run on his offerings, which has led to some hard contact at times.

His biggest problem was when the Cut fastball wasn't breaking the way he needed it to; he was often left with no other options, as his breaking ball was inconsistent at best, while the splitter barely found the zone. Taking that into consideration, Romero has worked extremely hard to fine-tune that splitter and has now adopted a Kick-Change to help offset the fastball.

Whether he succeeds or fails in the Cubs organization, this is a low-risk move that has potential behind it. Moves like this have become a dime a dozen for this organization, and no one should expect them to stop.