The St. Louis Cardinals are carrying three underperforming left-handed relievers even now, but their mediocre southpaw problem has somehow broken the bounds of their own 25-man roster—J.C. Romero just will not stop bouncing around. The Cardinals signed Romero to be their second lefty in a bullpen that was supposed to be stabilized by Marc Rzepczynski, but dumped him after he gave up nine runs in eight innings over his first 11 appearances. From there he went to the Baltimore Orioles' AAA affiliate, but he opted out of that deal in July after he wasn't called up, whereupon he signed with the Cleveland Indians.

Now the Baltimore Orioles have traded an actual baseball player just to get Romero back. Carlos Rojas, the infielder they traded for him, is not an actual actual baseball player, I guess—he's a 28-year-old shortstop with a career OPS in AAA of .527. (He appears to have done some pitching this year, which is... probably a good idea, at this point.)

If nothing else, John Mozeliak was right to get rid of J.C. Romero when he could. Because it's clear now that the Orioles waited too long.