It was a long and mostly miserable season for Toronto’s veteran reliever Jordan Romano in 2024. He was coming off two All-Star seasons as the Blue Jays closer, had accumulated 95 saves over the previous three seasons, but but as the season trickled through the late spring it became obvious this season wasn’t going to turn out like those other two. He first encountered elbow inflammation issues during spring training, delaying his season start until mid-April. He seemed to pick up where he’d left off in 2023, accumulating four saves in a couple of weeks, but his velocity dropped significantly during a stretch in May and his ERA ballooned to 6.59 before he was finally pulled from action at the end of the month. But before his injury troubles really began to set in on him, there was the memory of the day that he managed his fifth save of the season, coming on May 8 on the road in a day game at Citizens Bank Park. “The place was absolutely sold out,” Romano said Tuesday, recalling the surprise of what even a workday baseball game in South Philadelphia was like. “The atmosphere was electric, and kind of coming off that series, I thought that if I get a chance to play here, I think I’d really enjoy it.” Romano will indeed get that chance, after he was signed Monday to a one-year, $8.5 million contract by Phillies president Dave Dombrowski. While some critics thought the signing was a bit of a gamble with what today is almost like a pocket-change free agent contract, Dombrowski sees in Romano a 31-year-old premier reliever almost back to full health and still in the prime of his career. Before departing the Winter Meetings in Dallas, Dombrowski praised Romano, calling him “one of the best back-end, high-leverage guys in baseball. Our medicals on him have been very good.” On a Zoom call with media members Tuesday, Romano said he was excited to keep progressing in his efforts to recapture his form from a couple of seasons ago. “Last Friday I got off the mound, felt great, mid-90s, for the first bullpen, which i was really excited about,” said Romano. He added that after another few weeks of “deloading” and strength training, he’ll get back to throwing bullpens in January. But he thinks he’s well on his way to full recovery before spring training starts. It was a long road. Romano, 31, would go on IL on June 1, and after another setback during rehab finally underwent elbow surgery in July. His rehab after that didn’t go well, either, and after initial optimism that he’d be returning sometime in August, the call was made to let him continue to rehab while the Blue Jays were quickly playing themselves out of contention. “The whole plan last year was never really to come back at the end of the year. We were just going to take it a little bit ... not even slower, just follow the timeline with that,” said Romano, a native of Markham, Ontario. “I want to get back on track, I’m feeling healthy and good now so I just want to have the one year to get back out there and prove my worth.” Before meeting any of his teammates, Romano can feel comfortable knowing that his manager, Rob Thomson, is a fellow Ontarian. But Thomson isn’t being provincial in his thinking about Romano’s role here – there were no fast promises of giving a closer role to Romano. Thomson doesn’t like to use that “closer” term anyway. Instead, the plan for Romano is to help in “high-leverage” situations, especially since both Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez are currently on the free agency market themselves. The Phillies now have Romano to go with fellow right-hander Orion Kerkering and left-handers Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado as back-end bullpen weapons. “I’m just kind of going in and wherever I can, help,” Romano said. “If they want me to throw the ninth, you know, I do love closing. I have experience there and I’m happy to do it. But if they need me in other spots, too, I’m happy to do that. “I’m kind of just there to help get big outs wherever they need them.”
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