Jordan Romano’s 2024 season is formally over, Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider advised reporters (together with Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) Friday that Romano gained’t be activated from the 60-day injured listing earlier than the common season is out. The nearer underwent an arthroscopic surgical procedure on his proper elbow in early July that got here with a post-procedure shutdown of at the very least six weeks. That preliminary timeline has now stretched into September, and whereas Romano has resumed throwing, “it simply didn’t work out with the variety of video games we have now left and what he’s going to need to verify off the listing in an effort to get again,” Schneider stated.
The information closes the e-book on an altogether disastrous season for the 31-year-old, who posted a 6.59 ERA over solely 13 2/3 innings of Main League motion. Romano started the 12 months on the 15-day IL on account of some elbow irritation that developed in spring coaching and wasn’t very efficient as soon as he returned to the mound in mid-April. His final season look got here on Could 29, as he returned to the 15-day IL shortly after that. There was some concern that Romano had a extra UCL-related extreme damage earlier than it was determined that arthroscopic surgical procedure was all that was required.
Schneider stated Romano would hold throwing and ought to be set for a standard offseason, in order that at the very least represents some excellent news on the longer-term well being entrance. Nonetheless, it naturally leaves Romano as one of many many query marks the Jays face for 2025 as they determine the right way to rebound from a disappointing marketing campaign. The Blue Jays must overhaul a bullpen that was one of many worst in baseball, and determining the right way to method this overhaul is trickier for the reason that membership doesn’t precisely know what it’s getting from its former nearer.
Davidi means that the Blue Jays may even contemplate non-tendering Romano if the workforce is just too involved about his well being. This would appear like a reasonably aggressive transfer contemplating how properly Romano pitched from 2020-23, and the right-hander isn’t overly costly on paper — Romano is coming into his last 12 months of arbitration eligibility. His lack of manufacturing in 2024 means he’ll obtain a minimal increase over his present $7.75M wage. That stated, the roughly $8M Romano figures to land in 2025 wage could possibly be used higher on relievers with fewer damage considerations hanging over them heading into one other season. A commerce (albeit a sell-low sort of commerce) or a non-tender may also be viable if Toronto doesn’t plan to retain Romano as soon as he turns into eligible free of charge company.