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Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Jordan Romano

By Tom Dakers
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Wild Card Series - Seattle Mariners v Toronto Blue Jays - Game Two Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Jordan Romano turns 30 in April. Older than I thought. He’s been in the majors for four seasons now and has been our full-time closer for the past two seasons.

Romano has recently said he isn’t going to pitch in the WBC, preferring to “just wanted to focus on my stuff here.” I think he’s right that pitchers have to ramp up too quickly when they play in the WBC. I’m happy pitchers have a month and a half to prepare for the season and work at full intensity. With the WBC, they get much less time to prepare for full-out intensity.

He has 61 saves, which puts him seventh on our all-time list. 29 saves this season would put him fifth. His career average of 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings would put him at the top of our career list if he had the 500 innings that Baseball Reference uses as the minimum for the list. He has a long way to go to get to 500 innings. He’s at 157 now.

Last year Jordan had a 2.11 ERA, and batters hit .190/.269/.263 against him (in 2021, batters hit .181/.266/.310 against him). His strikeout rate dropped a little this year, 28.3% from 33.6, but his walk rate also fell, 8.1% from 9.9.

He was equally good vs. LHB (.544 OPS) and RHP (.520 OPS). He gave up a little more hard contact in 2023 (33.3% from 25.4), but then he gave up fewer home runs, 4 and 7 last year. Of course, all our pitchers will likely give up more home runs this year.

Jordan is a two-pitch pitcher with a fastball (96.9 MPH average) and a slider (87.7).

Steamer seems to think he’ll give up more runs this year, suggesting he’ll have a 3.47 ERA in 66 games with 33 saves.

Poll

If the over/under on Jordan’s ERA is 3.47 I’d take the

This poll is closed

  • 8%
    Over
    (21 votes)
  • 91%
    Under
    (240 votes)
261 votes total Vote Now

Poll

If the over/under on Romano’s saves is 33, I’d take the

This poll is closed

  • 58%
    Over
    (151 votes)
  • 41%
    Under
    (108 votes)
259 votes total Vote Now

Poll

By the end of his time with the Blue Jays, Jordan’s place on our all-time list for saves will be

This poll is closed

  • 12%
    First, he’ll have over 217 saves.
    (30 votes)
  • 42%
    Second, he’ll have between 121 and 217 saves
    (105 votes)
  • 27%
    Third, he’ll have between 104 and 121 saves
    (68 votes)
  • 13%
    Fourth or fifth, he’ll have between 90 and 104 saves
    (33 votes)
  • 4%
    Out of the top five, he’ll have less than 90 saves
    (11 votes)
247 votes total Vote Now

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