Stefen Romero


Stefen Daniel Romero is an American professional baseball right fielder for the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball. He has played in Major League Baseball for the Seattle Mariners and for the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Career

Amateur

Romero attended Sunnyside High School in Tucson, Arizona. Playing for the school's baseball team, he earned an all-southern Arizona honorable mention from the Tucson Citizen following his senior season. He also played for the school's basketball team.
Romero enrolled at Pima Community College. After playing college baseball at Pima for two years, he transferred to Oregon State University, where he played for the Oregon State Beavers baseball team. In 2009, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He had a.326 batting average in 2010, and was named to the All-Pac-10 Conference First Team.

Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners selected Romero in the 12th round of the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft.
In 2012, Romero was the Mariners Minor League Player of the Year after he hit.352/.391/.599 with 23 home runs and 101 runs batted in with the Jackson Generals of the Class AA Southern League. He was assigned to the Tacoma Rainiers of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League in 2013, but started the season on the disabled list with an oblique injury. Romero was added to the Mariners 40-man roster on November 20, 2013.
In 2014, Romero made the Mariners' Opening Day roster, and had his major league debut on April 1. He struggled, batting.192 in 73 games. He began the 2015 and 2016 seasons with Tacoma.
On November 19, 2016, the Mariners released Romero to pursue an opportunity to play in Japan.

Orix Buffaloes

He signed with the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League on November 24. He signed a three-year contract extension with the Buffaloes on August 4, 2017, earning $2.5 million per season.
On December 2, 2019, he become free agent.

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

On January 27, 2020, Romero signed with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball. On February 15, 2020, he held press conference.

Personal life

Stefen's younger brother, Santiago, was a teammate on their high school baseball team.