LAKELAND — Ricky Romero is pitching like a triple-A pitcher, and has been for most of this spring.

I know that sounds harsh, and I don’t mean it to be a personal attack, but facts are facts.

And yet, management assures us there is no way Ricky will pitch anywhere other than the big league level come Opening Day.

It makes me wonder if they’re seeing the same stuff I am?

Or maybe it’s me that is seeing the wrong thing?

It’s hard to make a judgment call on a player assured of a roster spot in spring training. Players in this situation have no pressure to showcase their talent, and can subsequently use the time to tinker. Thus there is precedent to give Ricky the benefit of doubt, to believe he’s just treating this like lab hours.

Ricky’s struggles could very easily be written off under statements like, “getting the feel for the sinker,” or, “working on the changeup.” In fact, we’ve heard statements just like that employed several times this spring.

Maybe too many times?

On the other hand, I see Ricky doing things that, tinkering or not, are uncharacteristic of a veteran big league pitcher; consistently falling behind on batters, missing with pitches that are not being tinkered with, failing to put away hitters and telling the press the reasons for his failings are things he should already know, like getting too excited for a strikeout when he has two strikes.

I’ll concede that Ricky is tinkering on stuff while he has the chance, and that he should be allotted a wider margin of error while doing so. But, I can’t help but wonder how much of this tinkering is experimentation, and how much is recovering from last year’s utter meltdown?

Is Ricky back to normal and upping his game by taking risks when the results don’t matter? Or, is Ricky working on getting back to a big-league caliber player, something he seems far from at the moment.

I believe it’s the later, mainly because his peripheral numbers suggest it.

He’s walked seven batters in 8.2 innings and given up three homers. His command has been suspect, he’s working behind hitters too often and his walk totals are still far too high.

Couple that with last season’s ugliness and statements usually heard from the lips of younger pitchers and I feel there is ample evidence that Ricky is far from big league ready.

As a former teammate of Ricky’s, I’m pulling for him. He’s a warrior, and he never quits. But, this is a game of what-have-you-done-lately and lately Rickey has struggled.

If this keeps up, I can imagine his leash—and yes, he’s earned a leash by now—will be short.

Meanwhile, J.A. Happ bides his time, not missing any opportunity to shorten Ricky’s leash from the other end.