The Blue Jays non-tendered closer Jordan Romano, tweets Jeff Passan of ESPN. The two-time All-Star had been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $7.75MM salary in his final season of arbitration. He goes directly into free agency without landing on waivers.
That lofty projection made Romano one of the more obvious high-profile candidates to be let go. His 2024 season was wrecked by injury. The 31-year-old righty pitched in 15 games, allowing 10 runs over 13 2/3 innings. In early July, he underwent arthroscopic surgery to address an impingement in his throwing elbow. That ultimately proved to be a season ender. While the Jays initially expressed hope that Romano could return in September, they fell out of the playoff race and had little reason to rush him back to action.
The Jays weren’t comfortable risking a near-$8MM salary on a rebound. Romano nevertheless becomes one of the most intriguing buy-low targets for teams looking for bullpen help. He was an elite back-end weapon between 2021-23. Romano has recorded 103 saves over the past four seasons, including consecutive 36-save performances in 2022 and ’23.
He topped 55 innings in each of the three seasons preceding this year and turned in a sub-3.00 ERA showing in each year. From 2021-23, Romano posted a 2.37 earned run average through 186 innings. He struck out more than 30% of opposing hitters against a tolerable 9.2% walk rate.
Toronto already needed to address the bullpen, which ranked 29th in the majors with a 4.82 ERA. Only the Rockies had a more troublesome relief group. Moving on from Romano, while understandable, simply adds to that urgency. The Jays also non-tendered Dillon Tate, opening a second bullpen spot. Erik Swanson and Chad Green project as the top in-house options for leverage work. GM Ross Atkins and his staff will certainly look for at least one, and quite likely multiple, back-end arms during the coming weeks.
Totally expected. The free agent market is full of decent back end relievers
Baby got back
Ryan Pressly to the Blue Jays incoming??
Pressly ain’t nuthin but a hound dog
Ironic if Pressly is the replacemat since they loved me non tendered his predecessor
If Romano’s elbow is swiss cheese then I can understand this non-tendering. Otherwise not.
We must remember that it is Atkins and Shaprio making these decisions.
Just cause you non tender him doesn’t mean you can’t bring him back. They could offer him a contract at a lower salary if there’s mutual interest in sticking around.
@Harrison Butker’s Mount Rushmore Worthy Speech
If they offered a contract at a lower amount he obviously refused it. Seeing he didn’t sign a new contract. I’m sure Romano will be in a new uniform next year. Good on him.
Too much of a gamble to take at that price. 4-5 million- sure, but there’s lots of late inning relievers on the open market to help in 2025
@Skell 2
He wasn’t just a late inning reliever, he was a closer. Big difference.
But was s shaky closer, not lights out.
There’s literally no difference and there isn’t a gm in the league that thinks like that.
Unless you’re the Red Sox all that moolah for maybe half season of Liam Hendrix. Unless he plays the star bangled banner on his keytar on off days then he’s totally worth it
I’ll wait to see what the reason for non-tendering Romano was before passing judgement. I’m sure it’s something along the lines of Atkins locking himself in his car. Or over lunch Shapiro said he didn’t want any romano in his Italian meal and Atkins took it to mean… *facepalm
I’m sure you thought this was funny when you typed it.
Romano is not a $7.5M pitcher. Full stop. May not even be playable right now, depending on health. But he is, in any event, not a $7.5M pitcher.
That’s not a lot of money for an elite reliever when healthy, maybe he Jays budget is tighter than we expected.
Or you know, they have his medicals
Romano will have to prove health and get back on track. He had been elite prior to this year. Someone will grab him though.
Would love to see the Pirates take a shot here for about 6 mill
Oh AA, here’s a high leverage arm to replace Jimenez and it won’t cost an arm and leg. Unless there is something in his medicals that would cause this. I mean a three year track record of success will get him a few offers in the open market.
Rubber arm, glad he is gone.
Erik Swanson and Chad Green as your two best option is not a good plan.
Yea and it’s a shame the off-season is over. That was their chance to get better.