SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Enny Romero’s passport contains more stamps than most. His nomadic baseball journey had had stops in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea and Mexico. A trip to Taiwan isn’t off the table.
It has been nearly seven years since the last time Romero, 34, took a major-league mound. As a non-roster invitee with the Giants, Romero is as close as he’s been in recent years to making his return.
“What I’ve learned is to always keep my head up,” Romero said through team interpreter Erwin Higueros. “The game of baseball is so beautiful, but you have to know how to deal with your ups and downs. Baseball teaches you life lessons and how to handle adversities.
The first chapter of Romero’s career began standard enough. He signed with the Tampa Bay Rays out of the Dominican Republic in 2008, elevated to top prospect status as a left-hander capable of throwing triple digits and made his major-league debut in 2013 at 22 years old. He pitched several unremarkable seasons for the Rays, enjoyed a career-year with the Washington Nationals in ‘17 (3.56 ERA) under Dusty Baker, then pitched a handful of innings for the Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals in ‘18. The last time Romero pitched in a major-league game was July 15, 2018, allowing five earned runs in one inning.
It was here that Romero’s worldly travels began in earnest.
In 2019, Romero played for the NPB’s Chuinchi Dragons in Japan, posting a 4.26 ERA over 21 starts, the first time he’d been used as a starter since his days with the Rays. Romero re-signed but didn’t pitch in 2020 due to a shoulder injury and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I missed baseball for a complete year after an injury. Then, the pandemic hit,” Romero said. “It was frustrating because I didn’t understand it. I would cry at times as to why I was going through this. But then I understood that it was the game of baseball. There were a lot of life lessons to understand. Once I started understanding what I was going through, I kind of found peace with myself. I had my mom, my dad and my wife there that were supporting me all the way, so that also helped.”
In 2021, Romero signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers with an invitation to spring training but was released by early April. Several months later, Romero returned to Japan to pitch for the Chiba Lotte Marines, where he had a 1.54 ERA in four starts down the stretch. He returned for 2022, earning a 3.36 ERA with 77 strikeouts over 115 1/3 innings.
While playing for the Marines, Romero befriended a young rookie by the name of , who was already beginning to take the baseball world by storm with his combination of a triple-digit fastball and a devastating splitter. Romero fondly remembers the two seasons he spent as Sasaki’s teammate, sharing how Sasaki would text him words and phrases in Spanish. When recalling their time together, Romero called Sasaki “a special person.”
