The Blue Jays non-tendered nearer Jordan Romano, per Jeff Passan of ESPN. The 2-time All-Star had been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $7.75M wage in his closing season of arbitration. He goes straight into free company with out touchdown on waivers.
That lofty projection made Romano one of many extra apparent high-profile candidates to be let go. His 2024 season was wrecked by harm. The 31-year-old righty pitched in 15 video games, permitting 10 runs over 13 2/3 innings. In early July, he underwent arthroscopic surgical procedure to deal with an impingement in his throwing elbow. That finally proved to be a season ender. Whereas the Jays initially expressed hope that Romano might return in September, they fell out of the playoff race and had little cause to hurry him again to motion.
The Jays weren’t comfy risking a near-$8M wage on a rebound. Romano nonetheless turns into one of the intriguing buy-low targets for groups searching for bullpen assist. He was an elite back-end weapon between 2021-23. Romano has recorded 103 saves over the previous 4 seasons, together with consecutive 36-save performances in 2022 and ’23.
He topped 55 innings in every of the three seasons previous this yr and turned in a sub-3.00 ERA exhibiting in annually. From 2021-23, Romano posted a 2.37 earned run common by 186 innings. He struck out greater than 30% of opposing hitters in opposition to a tolerable 9.2% stroll price.
Toronto already wanted to deal with the bullpen, which ranked twenty ninth within the majors with a 4.82 ERA. Solely the Rockies had a extra troublesome aid group. Shifting on from Romano, whereas comprehensible, merely provides to that urgency. The Jays additionally non-tendered Dillon Tate, opening a second bullpen spot. Erik Swanson and Chad Inexperienced mission as the highest in-house choices for leverage work. GM Ross Atkins and his workers will definitely search for no less than one, and fairly doubtless a number of, back-end arms in the course of the coming weeks.
