With the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional (LVBP) a short few months away, the 2024 Champions, Tiburones de La Guaira, have announced that relief pitcher and Cuban native Miguel Romero will return for the 2024-25 winter season.
Romero, 30, was signed by the Oakland Athletics out of Cuba in February 2017. Romero would pitch in the Athletics organization from 2017-2023, posting a career 5.41 ERA in 183 appearances and 23 starts. For his minor league career, he also had a career 14-13 record, 19 saves, and struck out 287 batters in 306.1 innings of work.
This isn’t Romero’s first taste of international competition. He played in the Puerto Rican Winter League in 2019-20 with the Indios de Mayaguez, throwing a 1.46 ERA in 10 appearances. He played with the Gigantes de Carolina during the 2022-23 Puerto Rican Winter League season. Most notably, Romero represented Cuba during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, where he was selected to the All-World Baseball Classic team, with his 13 strikeouts leading all pitchers in WBC play.
The A’s released him in May 2023. After pitching in Mexico and Venezuela this past winter, Romero signed in Liga de Beisbol Mexicana (LMB) with the Conspiradores de Querétaro. He would be primarily used as a starter, making ten of them, posting a 2-2 record, a 4.95 ERA, and striking out 27 batters in 40 innings while walking 21 batters. We will see if the Tiburones plan to use Romero in their rotation or if he will become a workhorse for their bullpen this winter.
Photo Credit: Miguel Romero pitches the ball during the Caribbean Series. (Photo by Chandan Khanna / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
