ST. LOUIS – Professional athletes have all sorts of ways of dealing with trade rumors with some opting to stay away from social media all together, while others even ban their friends and family from discussing the topic.

As for Cardinals' standout reliever JoJo Romero, he turned to the Happiest Place on Earth this past winter when his name was being bandied about in trade talks.

“It’s obviously flattering to be wanted, but I handled it by going to Disney World with my family,” said Romero, who spent much of his winter near the team’s Spring headquarters in Jupiter, Fla., and made the two-hour drive to Orlando. “I try not to listen to all that stuff and at the end of the day, it’s just rumors.

“I just tried to disconnect from all of it, spend time with the family and spend time putting in the work that needed to get done.”

Romero, 29, has already shown in four outings of 2026 why he was such a hot commodity among other teams over the winter. In four innings of work, he hasn’t allowed a run or a walk, he’s surrendered just two hits and he has piled up three strikeouts. And he’s done so in extremely difficult spots by retiring Mets superstars Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette in order on Tuesday and Wednesday when the Cardinals toppled the Mets 4-0 and 2-1.

For Romero – who was acquired in a trade between the Phillies and Cardinals in 2022 for shortstop Edmundo Sosa – the strong start to 2026 has been a continuation of how well he’s pitched the previous two seasons.

Romero  got closing experience late in the 2023 season when All-Star closer Ryan Helsley was out with forearm tightness and he parlayed that into a breakout season in 2024. That year, he 7-3 with 30 holds and a save in 65 appearances and he was one of the reasons why Helsley went on to set the Cardinals saves’ record with 49. Last season, Romero compiled a stellar 2.07 ERA in 65 appearances and limited foes to a .217 batting average. And when Helsley was dealt to the Mets at the MLB Trade Deadline, Romeo showed off the growth in his game by saving eight games in nine opportunities.

At the heart of Romero’s success has been how effective he has been at shutting down left-handed hitters – something that even Soto can attest to after having zero success against Romero at Busch Stadium earlier in the week.

This season, lefty hitters are just 1 for 5 against Romero and they hit just .181 and .211 against the Cards’ lefty with the hard slider over the previous two seasons. Even more impressive is the fact that lefties have just one homer against Romero over his last 134 appearances.

National League teams forced to face the Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker), Phillies (Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber), Brewers (Christian Yelich) or Mets (Soto) in the playoffs would understandably have tremendous interest in a reliever like Romero who makes life tough on lefties. Same in the American League with teams that must face the Yankees (Cody Bellinger), Astros (Yordan Alvarez) or the Mariners (Cal Raleigh and Brendan Donovan) in the postseason.

A Cardinals club that traded Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Donovan for prospects over the winter will likely shop Romero again before the MLB Trade Deadline. Romero, the second-highest paid player on the Cardinals active roster at $4.26 million, will be a free agent at season’s end, so a rebuilding Cardinals franchise will have plenty of reasons to try and shop the reliever to the highest bidders.

Just don’t expect Romero to pay a lot of attention to it.

“Like I said, it’s nice to be wanted and having teams calling about you or whatever,” Romero said. “But my focus has just been on staying healthy and doing my job.”    

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