Tigers’ Romine adds center field to his resume

Cleveland — Might as well go for it now, right?

“Yeah, why not?” Tigers super utility man Andrew Romine said before the game Wednesday. “I’m almost there.”

Romine played center field in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night. It was the seventh different position he’s played at the big-league level. All that’s left — catcher and right field.

“Hopefully it doesn’t happen because if I’m the catcher, that could mean bad news for us,” Romine said. “But it would be really cool.”

Romine is a shortstop by trade, playing 148 games there. He’s played 95 games at third base, usually as the late inning defensive replacement for Nick Castellanos. He’s played 30 games at second base, 18 at first and two games in left field. He’s also been the designated hitter.

As an aside: He’s a perennial favorite to win the team’s ping-pong tournament in spring training, as well as a threat in the basketball shooting tourney. He’s that guy — good at every athletic endeavor he tries.

The only thing that didn’t quite go so well for him was his one stint on the mound.

“I will never claim to be a pitcher,” he said. “The last time I’d pitched was in high school. No way I’m a pitcher. We already seen what happens when I throw the ball over the plate — it gets crushed.”

He pitched one inning, against the Twins on Aug. 22, 2014. He faced seven hitters, didn’t walk anybody and got a strikeout. That was the good news. He also gave up four hits — two of them home runs — and three runs.

Fulmer to showcase change-up more in Thursday's encore

His father, former major leaguer Kevin Romine, was an outfielder for seven seasons. So Andrew grew up playing center field. Playing the outfield hasn’t been much of a stretch for him.

Before last season, manager Brad Ausmus tabbed him as the team’s emergency catcher. He’s caught spring games and he’s caught bullpen sessions. But that’s the position that most terrifies him.

“Catching, man, that’s a different beast,” he said. “There’s so much going on. You are involved in every single pitch. That’s something where you have to have game experience to be able to understand it all, and I’ve never really caught before.

“It’s rough. And it’s rough on your body, too.”

His brother, Austin, is a catcher with the Yankees, and he’s picked his brain about playing the position. He believes he could probably fake it enough to get through an inning or two.

“I wouldn’t say I’d be good at it,” Romine said. “But I will do my best to catch the ball. Just catch it however you can. There would be no expectations out there anyway.”

That’s not the case when he’s inserted at third late in a close game, or shortstop, or even Tuesday when he was sent to center field. The expectations are that he will perform as if they were his natural positions.

Ausmus has that much trust in him.

“Everybody wants to make it here and to be able to play at different positions — that’s something else,” Romine said. “I do take a lot of pride in that, in the ability to be thrown out there and be able to do the job.”

It takes a lot of extra work. Romine is a switch-hitter, so on top of having to take extra batting practice every day — often early before regular BP — he’s also lugging four and five different fielder’s gloves to the park, taking balls at all four infield spots and also shagging fly balls in the outfield.

“There’s that sense that I don’t want to let my team down,” he said. “At the same time, I prepare myself as much as possible.”

He and Ausmus have talked about the possibility of letting him play all nine positions — perhaps all nine in a single game if the right situation arises. For sure, though, he wants to finish off the list.

“You know, when I went back to the hotel last night, it was kind of cool to check that off my list,” Romine said. “I played center field in the big leagues. I hope it happens. I hope I will be able to say one day that I played all nine positions in the big leagues.”

Twitter: @cmccosky