New Phillies reliever Jordan Romano loves the high expectations here: ‘I have the same expectations myself’
Romano racked up 105 saves in his time with the Blue Jays but suffered an elbow injury this year. He says he's "fully healthy" now.
DALLAS — On a Wednesday afternoon in May, the Phillies hosted the Blue Jays for a matinee game. As a midweek interleague matchup just over one month into the season, it was a fairly unremarkable day on the schedule.
But it still left an impression on Jordan Romano.
“The place was absolutely sold out,” Romano said Tuesday during a teleconference at the baseball winter meeting. “The atmosphere was just electric. And coming off that series, I was always like, if I ever got a chance to play here, I think I’d really enjoy it.”
The right-handed reliever will get that chance after signing a one-year, $8.5 million deal with the Phillies on Monday.
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In that game on May 8, Romano earned the save in a 5-3 Toronto win, one of 105 saves in his six-year career. But his 2024 season ended abruptly three weeks later, after Romano suffered a right-elbow impingement that required surgery. He pitched only 13⅔ innings in 2024.
Romano, 31, said he was experiencing discomfort at the back of his elbow, which worsened the more he threw. After surgery, he did not throw for 10 weeks while he worked on strengthening his forearm, shoulder, and elbow.
“I would describe it as a banging sensation at the back of the elbow,” Romano said. “When we cleaned it up and we got back going, that’s completely gone.”
Romano was officially shut down by Toronto in September, but he said Tuesday that the Blue Jays had never planned for him to return last season. Instead, he has focused on slowly building back up his velocity.
Romano, who said he feels “fully healthy,” threw a bullpen session Friday in which he touched the mid-90s. Romano’s four-seam fastball averaged 96.4 mph and topped out at 99 mph in 2024 before the injury.
“That was the box I checked,” Romano said. “And now we’re de-loading a little bit. I’m not just going to keep throwing bullpens. So for the next four weeks, just work on strength, just tuning up the slider, getting command, delivery back in line, and then in January, going to start throwing bullpens again.”
It has been a frustrating year overall for Romano, whose ERA shot up from 2.90 in 2023 to 6.59 in 2024. His struggles culminated in November with a non-tender by the Jays, the organization that drafted him in 2014 and developed him into a closer by 2021. Toronto manager John Schneider said that the Jays had pursued bringing him back as a free agent but that “it didn’t work out.”
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Romano sought a one-year deal from the Phillies to prove himself, and the team is hoping he can regain the form that earned him All-Star selections in 2022 and 2023. Romano’s 2023 swing-and-miss rate of 35.9% ranked in the 96th percentile of MLB pitchers, while his chase rate of 33.2% ranked in the 90th percentile.
Romano is a native of Markham, Ontario, the same province as Phillies manager Rob Thomson. Thomson spoke to him on Monday and said they had met in person once, running into each other at a Citizens Bank Park elevator.
“I think he’s really excited, and we’re excited as well. Because when he’s healthy, it’s a really good arm, big arm,” Thomson said.
Thomson doesn’t anticipate any changes with the way he will utilize his bullpen, meaning that while Romano will likely receive plenty of high-leverage innings and save opportunities, he will not be the team’s official closer. Romano is OK with that, as his focus is on something bigger.
“I think there’s a standard in Philly, a standard with the players, the city, the fans,” he said. “It’s a high level of performance, a lot of expectations to win. And I feel like I have the same expectations myself. So I feel like those views are aligned there.”