The Toronto Blue Jays Non-Tender Jordan Romano and Dillon Tate
Toronto Blue Jays management have decided Romano is not worth the risk of an $8 Million rebound.
Romano nevertheless becomes one of the most intriguing buy-low free agents for teams looking for bullpen help.
He was an elite back-end weapon between 2021-2023.
The Markham Ontario native has recorded 103 saves over the past four seasons, including consecutive 36-save performances in 2022 and 2023.
He topped 55 innings in each of the three seasons preceding this year and turned in a sub-3.00 ERA showing in each year.
From 2021-2023, Romano posted a 2.37 earned run average through 186 innings. He struck out more than 30% of opposing hitters against a tolerable 9.2% walk rate.
Romano was a fan favorite for his hometown team in those years, with his cool entrance theme but that wore thin quickly in 2024 and the boo-birds starting rearing their ugly heads.
Toronto already needed to address the bullpen, which ranked 29th in the majors with a 4.82 ERA. Only the Rockies had a more troublesome relief group.
While the Blue Jays initially expressed hope that Romano could return in September, they fell out of the playoff race and had little reason to rush him back to action.
Moving on from Romano, while understandable, simply adds to that urgency.
The Jays also non-tendered Dillon Tate, opening a second bullpen spot.
Erik Swanson and Chad Green project as the top in-house options for leverage work. General Manager Ross Atkins and his staff will certainly look for at least one, and quite likely multiple, back-end arms during the coming weeks.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 22 | 105 ANSWERS The Toronto Blue Jays Non-Tender Jordan Romano and Dillon Tate Are you happy the Blue Jays have moved on from Jordan Romano? | ||
| Yes | 33 | 31.4 % |
| No | 57 | 54.3 % |
| Don't care | 15 | 14.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
