The Blue Jays will place closer Jordan Romano and setup man Erik Swanson on the injured list to begin the season, manager John Schneider announced to reporters Wednesday (X thread via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). Right-hander Alek Manoah is also likely headed to the 15-day IL, the manager added, though it seems that’ll just be to allow him some extra time to continue building up after he was slowed by shoulder trouble earlier in camp. Manoah tossed 34 pitches in a simulated game today and will continue to build from there. Righties Nate Pearson and Wes Parsons will open the season on the big league roster in place of Romano and Swanson.
Both Romano and Swanson recently underwent MRIs after experiencing some discomfort, neither of which revealed structural damage. Romano has some inflammation in his elbow, while Swanson is dealing with some tightness in his forearm. Neither is expected to miss significant time, but it’s nonetheless a blow to the Jays’ bullpen in the early stages of the season.
Romano, 31 next month, has become a powerhouse at the back of the Toronto ’pen. Over the past four seasons, he’s pitched to a 2.29 ERA (3.13 FIP, 3.14 SIERA) with a gaudy 30.8% strikeout rate against a 9.2% walk rate. Last year’s K-BB% wasn’t quite as dominant as in the prior three seasons, but Romano’s 17.1% swinging-strike rate was a flat-out elite mark that hints at a potential “rebound” in strikeout rate (as much as anyone needs to “rebound” from a generally excellent 29% mark in that regard). The right-hander also tied a career-high with 36 saves.
The 30-year-old Swanson, acquired from the Mariners in last offseason’s Teoscar Hernandez trade, would’ve been the favorite to step into closing duties for Romano were he healthy. He posted a 2.97 ERA in his first season with the Jays and carries a terrific 2.60 earned run average (3.04 FIP, 3.07 SIERA) over the past three seasons. During that time, Swanson has punched out 29.4% of his opponents against a very strong 6.7% walk rate.
With Romano and Swanson shelved to begin the year, closing duties will presumably fall to veteran Yimi Garcia. Setup options include Chad Green, the aforementioned Pearson, lefty Tim Mayza and fellow southpaw Genesis Cabrera. The Jays still have a decent group of relievers, but any team’s bullpen is going to look a little dicey when subtracting its two clear best relievers, as is the case in Toronto.
As for the rotation, Manoah is slotted into the No. 5 spot as he looks to rebound from last year’s nightmarish season. The Jays were concerned for a bit that staff ace Kevin Gausman would also require an IL stint, but it seems he’s progressed enough to avoid that fate. They’ll still open the season with Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi starting the first three games, but Gausman will be in line for the fourth or fifth game. He just pitched in a final spring tune-up outing Monday and thus won’t be sufficiently rested for an Opening Day nod.
With Manoah out, righty Bowden Francis will get the rotation nod to begin the season. He’s already been confirmed for the roster — his first career Opening Day roster spot — and will look to build on last year’s impressive rookie showing. The 27-year-old tossed 36 1/3 frames of 1.73 ERA ball with plus strikeout and walk rates (25.7% and 5.9%, respectively) over the life of 20 relief appearances. Francis has typically been a starter in the minors, so an early rotation role will be plenty familiar for him. He could be the first man up in the rotation throughout the early portion of the season if the Jays incur injuries on the staff, though top prospect Ricky Tiedemann will also likely make his big league debut at some point this season.
If Manoah decided to stop being obese, he might wind up on the path or recovery towards having a solid career.
He allegedly lost 30 lbs in the offseason, so we’ll see.
He is a big dude, and weight can Definitely affect athleticism and other things, but there have been so many big pitchers have decent careers that this past season may have just been off and he may regain form and have a solid career. someone’s weight is not indictive of how they will perform for the rest of their career. And until it gets to that point and he doesn’t ever regain any of his 2022 form and he just becomes a journey man 5th starter, then you can say that. One off year doesn’t mean oh because you’re big you suck. Id say he’d be better off fixing his attitude than his weight. At the same time I see where you are coming from because many people have pointed that out even directly to him and instead of addressing the problem he makes it seem as if the reporters and everybody else is just out to get him.
Bartolo Colon
Yep. And CC Sabathia, and a number of others over the years.
Chris Bossio was a big dude, and he threw a no-hitter.
In his one spring training start he gave up four runs on three hits and hit three batters in less than 2 innings.
That’s a terrible outing, but it’s spring training. Could have just been rusty as hell, or it’s a continuation of 2023. We won’t know until he’s pitched enough this season to know exactly where he stands in his career. If he continues down this path though you’d have to wonder how 2022 was even possible for him, if he had an injury or something in his personal life that messed him up that hasn’t been reported. Or he all of a sudden got the yips, alla rick ankiel. If he can at least get to 3.5 ERA that’ll be good. He does have a long way to get back to being considered a top pitcher again though. And I mean a long way. But hopefully his career isn’t over and he somehow manages to beat out this terrible fall from grace. If he continues with his 2023 numbers I don’t know if I know of many pitchers that went from being a top MLB pitcher and potential yearly cy young contender to pretty much terrible and out of the league within a couple of years. He’s still relatively young and hopefully can get his head on straight and start pitching to at least middle of the rotation abilities. If not well his weight can be considered most definitely, or like I said he could have just got the yips for whatever reason. But I won’t blame this completely on his weight. Not now at least.
Babe Ruth was fat.
Manoah aint hurt he just sucks
He went from clayton kershaw to late career matt harvey overnite
I mean he kinda went from Matt Harvey to Matt Harvey
Not a single regular season game has been played yet, and the IL is becoming populated with pitchers. The team was lucky last year. The FO has done nothing this past off season…and the year is slowly starting to dissolve. Hopefully I’m wrong. Where was the training staff and therapists?
Same with devin williams in milwaukee. Dude had back spasms for 6 months, then turns out they are fractures. He said nothing to nobody. And no one ever inquired if he was feeling good or anything was wrong. For 6 months! Finally it became obvious in ST he was hurt bad. If he had just opened his mouth at any point during the offseason, he’d have healed by now. Some players stay quiet with injuries, teams and staffs dont do enough to check in with guys. Thats a big part of it anyway
Health has definitely been on their side but they are also actively prioritizing durability with their arms, so they put the odds in their favour.
The good news is it all seems minor and if there is an area of depth on this team is pitching, so they should be able to handle Romano and Swanson out for some time.
The Jays are a mess and no one seems to want to admit it.
Unlike past years, any discussion involving the Jays is now quiet in the comment section. My guess is that the fans have tuned out.
Let’s hope the Roger’s center will also be as quiet…perhaps it would expedite a departure of the ones driving the bus.
I doubt it. I’ve been a season ticket holder for over 10 years and they sold out all the new premium seating before it got to my rep.
For this year the place is going to packed, it’s next year after the Reno shine fades and the team goes in to a retool, that’s when it’s going to be a prob
@Dusty
If they show up it’s to see the renovations of the SD. Not the results of a terrible off season. They went from Ohtani headed your way. To who cares what’s on the field. How does that happen?
What is there to say? I have no say over Atkin’s poor off season and him and Shapiro have immunity due to “ReNoVaTiOnS” so it is what it is.
You made a statement and now is the time to back it up with FACTS – not opinions. Name players you don’t want on the team. Their pitching staff is in the top five in the majors. Their bullpen was near the top of the majors, they have major league players on the 26 man roster and name the players that don’t measure up in your opinion.
Its not about who I dont want on the team (IKF) its about the off season they had with a limited budget. The team got worse (on paper) and while yes the starting pitching is still good 1 to 3, Kooch had a very rough spring, Bowden Francis is the 5th starter (and I am high on him). The team pitched unreal last year and was extremely healthy, you cant assume as Atkins is that the offence will be better but not take into account the obvious regression there will be with health and pitching..
They overpaid IKF significantly, actually he should not have been paid at all to play 3B full time, they already have Ernie or whatever replacement guy they want at 3rd (IKF) or you could scoop up one of the many that were available for cheap. They needed a corner OF and a 4th OF and a 3B.. They decided to spend 90% of their budget on another CF (KK) and IKF (bench fodder). Still dont have a 4th OF, they will be throwing Biggio in a corner OF. They have no one to play OF against LHP as 3 of their 4 OF are LH (assuming Biggio is 4th OF). I love KK but was not a position of need with Varsho already a CF (who they paid an insane amount for).
TLDR: The team was decent in 2023, so there is still some hope with the whole lineup having a better season this year and the pitchers not regressing at all, but it was an awful offseason. The team got rolled in the playoffs for the 3rd straight time with this core (havent won a playoff game) and Atkins went out and made the team worse.
They are definitely in trouble with almost the whole starting staff and position players hitting FA in the next 2 seasons. I’m part of the fandom that wanted Atkins and Shapiro replaced this off season but to be fair they have made way more good decisions then bad ones. Their history of signing players and trades are much more in favour of good decision making, even tho the farm is bad the players they traded for have almost exclusively brought move value they the players sent away. Even if the incoming players didn’t live up completely like Grichuk they still heavily out preformed what they have up. Same with the FAs brought in, only Shun Yamaguchi and Tanner Roark were bad and even then the money never hurt the team. Yes trading Moreno was bad especially if they are not going to re sign Jansen for a few more seasons but the true down fall is there draft history. Horowitz, Manoah, and Teidaman are all that come to mind as draft success stories when you talk about MLB ready. They have Barger and Roden and a guy here or there I like but to have 3-5 draft picks get more then a cup of coffee in the time sense that took over is where they have failed miserably. By now there should be 3-5 guys on the team or kicking the door down to get playing time, not 2 “maybe” starting pitcher, a mid-tier contract 1b and a guy in Pearson who really could have been a good 3 in a rotation.
No one thinks less of their team than the good ol Toronto faithful
Many have already left…
Good. The less misinformed casuals stinking up The Dome the better.
Don’t understand why so many guys are banged up and not ready to pitch. Teams could be in a hole early having to rely on pitchers that have no business being in the majors.
Jays are simply waiting for Manoah to tell them he feels good and ready to go so they can option him down.
I just wonder how Manoah’s shoulder would be feeling if his first ST outing would have been better than it was (and it wasn’t good).
Can’t continue to hide behind phantom injury all your career Alek!
The forearm and elbow injuries are always scary because a lot of guys are said to have these problems before they get a TJ but don’t suspect this is were Swanson or Romano are headed. Also Romano was selected in the rule 5 the year before he broke out and was returned to the jays. If I remember correctly he was with both the rangers and white Sox as 1 team claimed him after the other tried to return him. It’s crazy to think we’re he would be now if not returned, would he have still become an elite strike-out relief weapon or would he have become just middle relief or a career minor league guy. If he had stayed he may have only pitched 40 innings that whole year, then sent back down the next, who knows what would have become of him.
4th place Jays, maybe 5th if Sox get really lucky
With the opening day roster and these injuries, the team is looking more likely to be competing for the wild card this year. FG projection, based on WAR, of 86 win season. That’s probably good for 3rd in the East, given that the O’s and Yankees are most likely competing for the top two spots.
“…when subtracting its two clear best relievers, as is the case in Toronto.”
*stares in Tim Mayza*
Shapiro and Atkins intentionally built a crappy team for this year so they can justify trading Bo and Vlad at the deadline instead of extending them.
Amazing how negative everyone is