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.
Hard to imagine the Jays walking away from him, but they would know more about the medical situation then we do.
$8 million isn’t chump change, but it also isn’t back breaking.
It’s fair to assume the performance this season was all injury related so if his rehab goes fine and he has the all clear, it’s easy to see him getting back closer to his normal form next year. A healthy Jordan Romano is hard to replace for $8 million.
“Hard to imagine”..It’s not too hard for me to imagine this. In some years, clever maneuvering can yield two useful relievers for the same roughly $8M. I can’t see a reliever with health questions being brought back at this price. I can see Romano getting maybe a $2M guarantee plus incentives, most likely elsewhere.
@mlb fan
He’s just not a reliever, he’s a closer. There’s a big difference.
“He’s a closer”…”Closers” are by definition relievers. And it’s only a “big difference” when they’re healthy, able and performing well.
Formerly elite high leverage arms with health questions are a dime a dozen on the waiver wire(or minor league deals)in my honest opinion. There’s room for differing opinions but I would hope my favorite teams wouldn’t allocate $8M towards such an unknown.
Didn’t they give Yariel big money as an unknown ?
@mlb fan
From 2022 to 2023, with relievers pitching more than 100 innings (this factors out injuries) and with more than 20 saves (factors out non-closet relievers over a 2 year period) Romano finished 13 by fWAR, 2nd in Saves, and 5th by WPA.
His is ARB controlled for next year suppressing his value.
For the Jays to acquire a pitcher of equivalent value on the open market they would have to spend significantly more. Kenley Jansen is making 16M AAV for example. Unless Romano suffers a year long injury in the offseason he’ll be pitching with the Jays in ’25.
mlb fan it’s either $8-mil to Romano or $8-mil to questionable bullpen arms on the market. Because the Jays are planning to compete in 2025, I think they need to retain Romano.
Letting him go would mean replacing their closer, not a couple middle innings relievers. Romano has been a top 5 or at worst a top 10 closer for the last few years.
This season, the 10th highest paid relievers were Aroldis Chapman and Chad Green, each getting $10.5 million.
Romano’s performance can’t be replaced on the open market for less then $10 million.
Obviously, they could just sign a bunch of guys, close their eyes, cross their fingers and hope that some random guy just turns into a closer, but that’s not a plan, that’s just luck.
And although they’ve been using Chad Green as a closer, he’s much better as a setup guy.
No value in spending the money if they can’t score runs…a closer is only a closer if the team is scoring more runs than the other team. It seems it’s harder to find someone that can hit…
Maybe offer an extension and hometown discount. The RP depth is not good, and going cheap rolls the dice if the Jays expect to compete next year (their intention).
I wish they kept Hicks after last season. Paying him over Romano made sense as he quickly became our bullpen Ace last year.
Who would you have not paid in the offseason to make the Hicks signing happen? Hindsight to say the Jays should have gotten rid of Romano but that wasn’t going to happen.
Analytics show that he should still be pitching…
Right? Get out there dadgummit
I’m sure left handed would be just as effective as some of his outings this year…
Overpay
Will be non tendered. Or reworked contract. No brainer to non tender
Pretty crazy how he’s at least under consideration for a non tender, and I wouldn’t blame them at all if they ended up doing that.
Releasing him would be a Jays move to make.
Release the hound
The Jays need to have a good bullpen to compete. and that means a shutdown closer. Where is the closer coming from?
How about that Kenley fella?…he’s closed before…
@bestone
He’s doing pretty well with the RSox and he’s making 16M AAV. Look for his ask to be that much as a min for ’25.
The difference between 8M and 18M is a few extra seats in the higher paying section, a post season game, and a few extra city connects jerseys….
Sometimes ya gotta pay to get the confidence level back…