Cardinals Interested In Reunion With JoJo Romero

After shipping him to Milwaukee at the trade deadline, the Cardinals have interest in bringing back left-hander JoJo Romero, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Romero was a crucial cog in a Brewers’ bullpen that dominated en route to a title. St. Louis closed the 2025 season with an unsettled relief corps after Ryan Helsley and Phil Maton were traded away. Romero filled in at closer at times to close the year and seemed to have a shot to take the job in 2026. Instead, Riley O’Brien emerged as an All-Star stopper. That allowed Romero to stay in his high-leverage lefty role. He racked up 20 holds in 44 appearances. With free agency looming, the Cardinals sent Romero and Dustin May to the Brewers for outfield prospects Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale. The swap worked out well for both sides. The addition of Romero gave manager Pat Murphy another southpaw alongside Aaron Ashby in the later innings. Romero was scored upon in just one of seven playoff outings. He picked up wins over the Dodgers in Games 2 and 4 of the NLCS. St. Louis recouped a pair of young outfielders who immediately ranked among their better hitting prospects. MLB Pipeline slotted Frias at No. 5 and Ragsdale at No. 11 in the system. Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs ranked Frias as the third-best prospect moved at the deadline. [Related: 2026-27 Offseason Outlook — St. Louis Cardinals] The 30-year-old Romero has been one of the steadiest lefty relievers since joining the Cardinals. He came over in the deal that sent Edmundo Sosa to Philadelphia in 2022. Romero posted a low-to-mid 3.00s ERA in every season from 2023 through 2026. The one outlier was 2025, when he recorded a 2.07 ERA over a career-high 61 innings. Romero ran hot on home run luck that year. Romero came in at No. 46 on our Top 50 Free Agents list. He’s the fourth lefty reliever on the board, behind Adrian Morejon, Alex Vesia, and Steven Okert. Morejon is in a class by himself, but Romero certainly deserves to be in the mix with the rest of the group. We predict a two-year, $13MM deal for him. He should draw solid interest from teams looking to bolster their bullpen, which tends to be an ample bunch. The Cardinals head into 2027 without many proven options behind O’Brien. Luis Gastelum showed some strikeout upside in his debut campaign. George Soriano had a decent season after coming over in a minor trade. The left-handed choices right now are journeyman Justin Bruihl and long relievers Brycen Mautz, Eduardo Rivera, and Josh Fleming. Bruihl had a good year, but he’s more of a middle relief candidate. The others are best-deployed as multi-inning guys. Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images View Comments (14)