2020 MLB Draft: Scouting Colorado Rockies 35th overall pick Drew Romo

The Colorado Rockies drafted high school catcher Drew Romo as the 35th overall pick in the 2020 draft.

When Craig Biggio was playing, it was all about finding athletic catchers and turning them into middle infielders. Then the Colorado Rockies found Tony Wolters, and nobody dared “dash on the stache,” after he turned from middle infielder into a catcher. Now the Colorado Rockies may have found a similar athlete after their Compensatory Round A selection in the 2020 MLB Draft.

Drew Romo came into the draft as the top high school catcher and left the first day as the fifth catcher drafted overall, and the second high school catcher after Tyler Soderstrom was taken 26th overall by the Oakland A’s. As with their first pick, the Colorado Rockies went with the best player available at a position of need that was expected to go much higher, grabbing Romo at number 35 overall.

Teams are usually hesitant to spend a day 1 pick on catchers as over the last 27 drafts only Joe Mauer (top pick overall in 2001) has accrued at least 5.0 WAR at the MLB level. But when you have a catcher with a potential for multiple Gold Gloves in his future, you snag him. Especially when you have one of the weakest overall systems in the league, let alone the absolute weakest when it comes to the catcher position.

There’s a modern comparison to Romo but there is another, better comparison to the Colorado Rockies draft pick.

At the very least, Romo should develop into a defense-first back-up, but has the potential to be compared to Yasmani Grandal by most pundits, but I feel this is recency bias and lazy.

A better comp to me is Jason Kendall. A middle-infield convert who brings his above-average athleticism from days as a shortstop to behind the plate, even more than Grandal. Below you can see a comparison of Kendall’s and Romo’s scouting reports:

As you can see, Kendall was rated a bit lower in every category except power. Romo has a more advanced glove than the future All-Star, who surprisingly never won a Silver Slugger or Gold Glove, leaving Kendall as one of the most underrated ballplayers of all-time.

This could be a future look at Romo. He may never be a superstar like Grandal (which is his ceiling), but he could be an under-the-radar, underrated type who has an extremely productive career (which is his floor). You could do a lot worse at the 35th overall pick.

Here is what MLB.com had to say about Romo before the draft:

Romo’s prowess behind the plate allowed him to lock down the starting job on the U.S. 18-and-under national team for the last two years. A potential Gold Glover, he possesses soft hands, advanced receiving skills and a strong arm with a quick release. He also garners praise for his leadership ability, work ethic and baseball IQ. Scouts have fewer questions about Romo’s bat after he performed well against quality pitching during the summer, though he didn’t get off to a great start in 2020 before his senior season ended prematurely. A switch-hitter, he has a better swing from the left side but has improved from the right. The Louisiana State commit will provide more contact and on-base ability than power, but he can become a .260 hitter with 12-15 homers per year while running the bases better than most catchers.

Overall, the Colorado Rockies did well in their two, first-round picks.

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Romo, like Veen at ninth overall, is dripping with potential. However, as with Veen, temper expectations on when you will see him with the big club as he is also very young at 18.

The Rockies, especially lately, have found some of their best talent in Comp. Round A, including the likes of Trevor Story (45th overall in 2011), Tyler Nevin (38th overall 2015), and Grant Lavigne (42nd overall 2018).

We all know the “Trevor” story (see what I did there? Again, father here. I’ll be here all week.), while the other two are ranked 12 and 8, respectively, on the Rockies top 30 prospects per MLB.com. So here is to continuing that recent spate of success with compensatory round picks.

For Romo as with Veen, 2023 (even this is a bit optimistic) is the most realistic year for a MLB debut. However, also as with Veen moving fast because of talent, due to the dearth of talent in the system and big-league level at his position, you could see Romo move faster than anticipated.

Let’s hope it’s because he forced the issue, and not the other way around, causing him to not be ready when he reaches The Show.

I really hate being so warm and fuzzy (it goes against my nature), but, again, I can’t help but be excited by this pick as I was with the Rockies’ first-round choice in Veen. I give a straight-A simply due to the past of first-round catchers. But here’s to believing the organization will continue its recent success with compensatory round picks.