The Detroit Tigers<\/a> made a move to shore up their catching situation. The team struck a deal with free-agent catcher Austin Romine<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> The team focused on adding an experienced catcher during this week\u2019s Winter a Meetings and they did just that. The deal is worth $4.1 million over one year. Entering his age 31 season, Romine will get the opportunity to compete with Grayson Greiner<\/strong><\/a> for the starting catcher role.<\/p>\n Austin Romine has spent his entire career with the New York Yankees<\/a>. Unfortunately for Romine, he was never given the opportunity to start. Russell Martin<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Brian McCann<\/a>,<\/strong> and Gary Sanchez<\/strong><\/a> have been the primary backstops during Romine\u2019s career in the Bronx.<\/p>\n Even still, Romine has always been a solid back up for the Yankees. He was selected in the 2007 MLB draft by the Yankees. He was a 2nd round selection and ended up debuting in 2011. Romine has always been considered a defense-first catcher, and the Yankees always considered him that. He has thrown out 22.9% of would-be base stealers during his career.<\/p>\n His bat has never been a strong point, but recently he has seemed to figure it out. Between 2018 and 2019, he slashed .262\/.302\/.428. He hit 18 home runs with 24 doubles in 149 games between the two seasons.<\/p>\n Romine will likely slot in as the starter, as mentioned before. It will give the two young catchers that the Tigers have in Grenier and Jake Rogers<\/strong><\/a> time to develop and learn from a veteran.<\/p>\n Tigers fans might remember Austin Romine as being the center of a dust-up with Miguel Cabrera<\/strong><\/a> in 2017. Romine did address this when asked:<\/p>\n New Tigers catcher Austin Romine on 2017 benches-clearing brawl with Miguel Cabrera: "No hard feelings. I feel like baseball takes care of itself. You have two guys out there protecting their teams. That's just baseball. It was an unfortunate circumstance but you move on."<\/p>\n — Jason Beck (@beckjason) December 13, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Numbers<\/h2>\n
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