Sal Romano stood out in spring training with the Cincinnati Reds in 2017. Despite a strong performance he was optioned to Triple-A Louisville near the end of March. He opened up the Minor League season for the Bats on opening night and allowed two runs in 6.0 innings with a walk and three strikeouts on a cold and windy night. His second start came last night in Louisville and he was even better.
Taking on the Toledo Mud Hens, Sal Romano cruised through 7.0 innings. The right hander allowed four hits, no runs, no walks, a hit-by-pitch and he struck out five batters. The first time he ran into trouble was in the top of the 7th inning when he allowed back-to-back singles with one out. He got out of the jam with a gounder that led to a double play. Romano only needed 80 pitches, throwing 55 strikes, to complete his outing.
Sal Romano Scouting Report
Fastball | Early in the game he was sitting 95-97 MPH, though he settled in at 95-96 later in the game. There were only a few 94’s all night.
Change Up | The pitch was working in the mid-to-upper 80’s on the night. It’s got some armside action to it and some sinking action on it as well.
Breaking Ball | On this night the pitch worked in the 86-88 MPH range. The slider can be an above-average to perhaps plus offering when it’s at it’s best. It’s average to slightly above-average at other times.
There are a lot of things to like with Sal Romano when you watch him on the mound. He’s a big, intimidating pitcher. The fastball is going to come at you hard. The offspeed stuff is going to come at you hard. He’s willing to throw all three pitches and seems to do so with confidence. Perhaps most importantly, he’s able to throw all three pitches for strikes.
Going back to July 7th of 2016, here’s the statline for Sal Romano between Double-A Pensacola (76.1 innings) and Triple-A Louisville (13.0 innings):
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | HR | ERA |
| 89.1 | 67 | 20 | 10 | 77 | 3 | 2.01 |
In that span the now 23-year-old has walked an insane 2.9% of the batters he’s faced. He has also struck out 22.4% of them. He’s allowed zero stolen bases (and had three caught stealing). It’s been one of the more impressive runs that we’ve seen a Cincinnati Reds minor leaguer go on in quite a while.
With some non-long term solutions in the Cincinnati rotation (Bronson Arroyo, Scott Feldman), if Sal Romano keeps this up much longer, it’s going to be next to impossible to keep him from getting called up. The opportunity could possibly come sooner given that Rookie Davis, who also pitched last night, was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch in the arm.