Telemarket Rimini officially announced the signing of former Major League outfielder Alex Romero for the upcoming season in the Italian Baseball League. The 29-year-old Venezuelan batted .239/.279/.339 in 144 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2008 and 2009. In the Minors he also wore the jerseys of the Minnesota Twins and Florida Marlins organizations before going to Mexico last year.
Overall Romero had a batting line of .306/.372/.424 with 65 home runs, 570 runs and 525 RBI in 1,070 minor league games. After playing winter ball and participating in the Caribbean Winter Series, Venezuela’s manager Luis Sojo nominated Romero for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, where his team got eliminated in a first-round pool with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Spain. He even played in one game, going 1-for-4 with a run and a RBI in the 11-6 win of Venezuela over Mauro Mazzotti’s Spain.
Romero joins Andrew Baldwin, Ramon Castro (also a former Major Leaguer) and Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez as fourth foreign player on the Pirates roster. Additionally the club, which will play the Coppa Italia final this weekend against Unipol Bologna, also officially confirmed the signings of Leonardo Zileri and Riccardo Bertagnon. The two transfers from Parma already were rumored since the beginning of the winter.