Blue Jays Shut Down Jordan Romano For Remainder Of 2024 Season

Jordan Romano’s 2024 season is officially over, as Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) Friday on that Romano won’t be activated from the 60-day injured list before the regular season is out.  The closer underwent an arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow in early July that came with a post-procedure shutdown of period of at least six weeks.  That initial timeline has now stretched into September, and while Romano has resumed throwing, “it just didn’t work out with the number of games we have left and what he is going to have to check off the list in order to get back,” Schneider said.

The news closes the book on an altogether disastrous season for the 31-year-old, who posted a 6.59 ERA over only 13 2/3 innings of Major League action.  Romano began the year on the 15-day IL due to some elbow inflammation that developed in Spring Training, and simply wasn’t very effective once he made his return to the mound in mid-April.  His last appearance of the season came on May 29, as he returned to the 15-day IL shortly thereafter and there was some concern that Romano had a more serious UCL-related injury before it was decided that the arthroscopic surgery was all that was required.

Schneider said that Romano will keep throwing and should be set for a normal offseason, so that at least represents some good news on the longer-term health front.  However, it naturally leaves Romano as one of the many question marks the Jays face for 2025 as they figure out how to rebound from a very disappointing campaign.  The Blue Jays will have to overhaul a bullpen that was one of the worst in baseball, and figuring out how to approach this overhaul is trickier since the club doesn’t exactly know what it is getting from its former closer.

Davidi suggests that the Blue Jays could even consider non-tendering Romano if the team is just too concerned about his health.  This would seem like a pretty aggressive move considering how well Romano pitched from 2020-23, and the right-hander isn’t overly expensive on paper — Romano is entering his final year of arbitration eligibility, and his lack of production in 2024 means that he’ll receive a pretty minimal raise over his current $7.75MM salary.  That said, the roughly $8MM Romano figures to land in 2025 salary could be put to better use on relievers who have fewer injury concerns hanging over them heading into another season.  Pursuing a trade (albeit a sell-low type of trade) or a non-tender might also be viable if Toronto doesn’t plan to retain Romano once he becomes eligible for free agency.