2014 Dodgers In Review: UT Jamie Romak

What happened in 2014: Well, hey, making your major league debut after a decade in the pros is nice, right?

Ah, Jamie Romak. What can you say about Jamie Romak? No, really: What can you say about Jamie Romak? Help! I need to say something about Jamie Romak. Apparently I did say something about him last November when he signed, but did I, really?

28-year-old four-corners guy Jamie Romak has also joined the organization, with a July 1 opt-out. He’s gone unclaimed in the Rule V draft at least once, and has never made it to the bigs, so that should tell you something about him. He hit 22 homers for St. Louis’ Triple-A team last year, along with a ton of strikeouts, but the Albuquerque roster is so thin that having someone with positional flexibility is worthwhile.

So there! Those are things that were said about him, I guess. Otherwise, we said very few things about him until the end of May, when he came up to make his major league debut when Carl Crawford‘s ankle injury landed him on the disabled list. At the time, I pointed out his ridiculously hot hitting — 10 homers in May alone — but also that when he appeared in a spring training game, Vin Scully admitted he had no idea who Romak was.

Romak stuck around for about a month, picking up two starts in right and one apiece at the infield corners, but otherwise not doing much of interest. Not that he got a ton of opportunities, but he also collected just a single hit as a Dodger, driving in two with a double off Matt Belisle on a dreadfully rainy day in Colorado. On June 25, the Dodgers were in Kansas City, and DFA’d him to bring up Clint Robinson, who is basically the same kind of guy Romak is — minor league lifer, power, little else — but with less positional flexibility. Romak cleared waivers and returned to Albuquerque, where he continued to mash, but without a spot on the 40-man, didn’t receive a recall in September. Hey, at least he can always say he was a big leaguer, right? So long, John Lindsey. I mean, Romak. Whatever.

2015 status: Romak signed a minor league deal with Arizona on Nov. 21.