Right-hander Jordan Romano has been released by the Angels, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He was designated for assignment a couple of days ago. He’ll now head to the open market in search of his next opportunity.
Players with at least five years of major league service time have the right to reject outright assignments to the minor leagues, instead electing free agency while retaining their salaries. The Halos have seemingly skipped that formality and opted to release Romano. They will remain on the hook for the remainder of his $2MM salary for now. Another club could sign him and only pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Angels pay.
Any interest from other clubs would not be based on recent trends. Romano has had a tough time in the past few years. He was injured for much of the 2024 season with the Blue Jays. He signed with the Phillies last year and had awful results. The Angels tried to get a bounceback but didn’t succeed. Between those three clubs, he has tossed 64 1/3 innings since the start of 2024, allowing 8.11 earned runs per nine.
That number probably overstates how poorly Romano has pitched. His 9.3% walk rate in that time was close to average, while his strikeout rate of 24.7% was a couple of ticks better than par. An 18.1% home run to fly ball rate didn’t help. His .331 batting average on balls in play and 54.2% strand rate were both to the unfortunate side. His 5.43 FIP for that time wasn’t good but far better than his ERA. On the wildly optimistic side, Romano actually has a 3.71 SIERA in that span.
Rather than sifting for positives in recent numbers, Romano’s potential is best shown in his more distant past. From 2020 to 2023, he posted a 2.29 ERA in 200 2/3 innings for the Blue Jays. He racked up 97 saves in that time with a 30.8% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 43.3% ground ball rate.
He hasn’t been nearly as effective since, as mentioned. Despite some optimistic underlying data, getting back to that level will be difficult with such diminished stuff. Romano averaged 97.6 miles per hour on his four-seamer back in 2021. That number has ticked down every year since and has been at 94.5 mph so far in 2026. Similarly, his slider is more than 4 mph down from its peak.
Photo courtesy of William Liang, Imagn Images
He’s not very good anymore but teams seem to like signing him so I’m sure he’ll be off the market again shortly.
“teams seem to like signing him” more like Ivy League GMs justifying their flawed sabermetrics…
Yeah analytics teams just love his … atrocious stats.
It’s been two times…
So a guy who hasn’t been good in several years wasn’t good this year?
I’m shocked.
Good thing we let that Brock Burke guy go, though. Who needs a good reliever when you can have a bad outfielder?
@halosheavenJJ. He was the first one i thought was going to cut. I was optimistic about yates, Stephenson and Joyce.
He just has trouble keeping the ball down.
Also can’t throw a strike to save his life.
Any pitcher getting released by the Angels has hit rock bottom!
Chicago Cubs need another bullpen arm to send to the injured list.
99th percentile for extension. Dodgers are salivating. He’s exactly the sort of guy they like to stick in the pitching lab.
It’s funny, but Romano’s stuff actually plays. (Sort of) His slider has decent vertical break (above league average). He has a high whiff rate.
He actually was pitching well throughout spring training and at the beginning of the season. Zero hits in his first 6 appearances.
Then Suzuki didn’t use him for an entire week, and Romano seemed to lose everything during that down time.
Suzuki’s bullpen usage so far has been mystifying, and I think he killed whatever momentum Romano had built up.
Wow. Another blown lead. Amazing. Not a surprise.
7 run inning to the White Sox. Rome is burning
Angels could sure use Brock Burke’s 0.68 ERA right now…