Austin Romine, C: Prospect Profile

Written by Greg Fertel | 04 April 2010

Austin Romine comes from one of those baseball families it seems so many players come from. His father, Kevin Romine, played 331 games over the course of his major league career. His brother, Andrew Romine, was drafted in the 5th round of the 2007 draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and is currently a shortstop in that organization. Austin, himself, was drafted by the Yankees in the 2nd round of the 2007 draft and signed on the day of the deadline for a well above slot $500,000 bonus.

Romine waited until the deadline to sign and since he came out of high school, he barely made it into professional ball in his debut season. The Yankees ended up sending him to the Gulf Coast League for one game. In Romine's three plate appearances that game, he walked, doubled, and struck out. This gave him a very nice .500/.667/.1000 line for the season. However, his BABIP was 1.000, so it was clear that there would be some regression in order in 2008.

Romine stands at 6'2" and is listed at 210 pounds and is bulky. He's built like a catcher, and he also runs like one. At the start of the 2008 season, both Romine and Jesus Montero were in Charleston. The idea was that they would split catching and DH duties and therefore would be kept fresh. The downside to this was that neither of them really got the defensive repetitions they need. While Romine is widely regarded as the "catcher of the future" over Montero because of his defense, it was well below average in his first full professional season. His bat was not, though.

As a young catcher, Romine's numbers are extremely impressive. His walk rate isn't anything to write home about, but I expect it to improve as he gets older and matures. He displays very good control of the strike zone and has a great approach at the plate, so it's almost surprising that he doesn't walk more. While his offensive numbers were down a bit in 2009, he increased his power. Add in the fact that this was done as one of the youngest hitters in the FSL, a notorious pitching league, and it is even more impressive. The average line in the FSL last season was .256/.324/.374. Romine did struggle down the stretch, but that could be attributed to some fatigue after catching all season.

Speaking of catching, Romine's defense improved greatly as he got to catch every day.

His catching statistics increased across the board. On a rate basis, he allowed fewer passed balls, fewer wild pitches, and threw out more runners. This was a showing that Yankee fans expected given Romine's defensive reputation. Romine's footwork is improving, he is athletic, and his arm is strong, so he could continue to improve in the caught stealing department. All together, you can't help but be encouraged the improvements Romine made defensively this past season.

While Romine has only hit 23 home runs thus far in his career, he does have some power potential. His power already spiked up a bit, and if he begins to pull the ball a bit more, no one would be surprised if he hit 20+ home runs in the majors one day.

Romine will start the 2010 season as a 21-year-old in Double-A Trenton. He'll continue to work on his defense, and hopefully his advanced approach leads to an even better offensive season this year. The fact is, though, that Romine's defense and athleticism will get him to the majors; it's his ceiling that depends on his hitting. He will never be Francisco Cervelli behind the plate or Montero in the batter's box. Then again those two are extremely elite in those departments. If Romine continues to progress as he has, it will be interesting to see what the Yankees do when both him and Montero are major league ready. Then again, that is a "problem" that the Yankees would love to have.

Photo Credit: Scott Jontes/MiLB.com