Report: Baltimore Orioles Acquire Left-Handed Pitcher JC Romero

The Baltimore Orioles have acquired left-handed relief pitcher JC Romero from the Cleveland Indians for a minor league infielder, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com (here are two different Twitter links).

This is an incredibly strong asset for the Baltimore Orioles as they try to fight for a playoff spot.

Of course, left-handed pitchers are few and far between, and Troy Patton is the only one in the Orioles' bullpen right now. Patton has been having a great year with a 2.58 ERA over 50 games so far.

Romero has definitely been serviceable in AAA this year even though he had a difficult time when he was in the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals at the start of the year.

He has only appeared in a total of 23 innings in AAA this year, but he posted a combined 2.73 ERA.

Romero is somewhat limited by the fact that he is a left-handed specialist, but at the same time, the Baltimore Orioles will be able to use that down the stretch. Patton tends to pitch tends to pitch entire innings when he comes in, so adding Romero will give Baltimore more options down the stretch.

Now, they won't need to necessarily use Patton for guys like Prince Fielder. They will be able to use JC Romero for one particularly difficult left-handed hitter, and they won't be all of a sudden out of left-handed arms.

This move is definitely subtle, and it will probably fly under the radar. But it does make quite a bit of sense to bolster the bullpen with veteran arms as the Orioles try to make it to the postseason.

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