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The Phillies Must End the Jordan Romano Experiment
By Tim Reilly
Published:
With two outs in the seventh inning and his team leading the Seattle Mariners 7-1, Phillies skipper Rob Thomson emerged from the dugout and took the ball from his starter, Ranger Suárez. Rebounding from a tough start in Cincinnati, the southpaw regained his command, benefited from a more generous strike zone, and kept the Mariners off balance for most of the evening. As Suárez left the mound and received a well-deserved ovation from the sellout crowd of 44,471, all that was left for the reliever striding through the bullpen doors to handle was some light mop-up duty.
Enter Jordan Romano.
The best one can say about Romano’s outing is that he secured the final out of the inning in an economical ten pitches, inducing Randy Arozarena to hit a weak ground ball back to the pitcher. Unfortunately, economy came at a price. In this instance, the Phillies’ once comfortable lead was mercilessly sawed in half courtesy of Cole Young, he of the three (now four) home runs and .696 OPS who resides at the bottom of the Mariners’ order.
Young was buried in the count 0-2, but he was undeterred. Romano served up a slider that, judging by the way J.T. Realmuto moved his glove as the pitch approached the plate, missed its target and ended up low and inside. The nitro zone for a left-handed hitter. And Young didn’t miss this golden opportunity.
It was a majestic home run, with the ball smacking the facing of the upper deck in rightfield. Any plans Thomson and pitching coach Caleb Cotham might have entertained about resting the Phillies’ stable of high-leverage arms went up in smoke, at least until the Phils rebuilt their advantage in the bottom of the frame.
In the end, the damage was minimal. The Phillies were compelled to call on Orion Kerkering, but he only needed to throw 13 pitches and should be available Tuesday. Romano’s teammates picked him up. It all amounts to a small hiccup in the course of a long season.
Except this is a recurring theme with Romano, this consistent inconsistency, this penchant for blowing up on the mound, this annoying habit of not being able to navigate the calm waters of a low-leverage situation. In one outing, he’ll dazzle hitters, as he did in the series opener in Cincinnati. In the next, he’ll self-destruct, as he did in the Queen City rubber match.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen much more Mr. Hyde than Dr. Jekyll, as Romano’s 7.56 ERA attests. Which begs the question: why? Why do the Phillies insist on his continued employment?
Maybe it’s the contract. Dave Dombrowski and the front office braintrust signed the former Blue Jays closer to a one-year, $8.5 million deal in the offseason. It was a big swing on a guy who struggled with injury and ineffectiveness in his last year with Toronto. The Phillies certainly hoped Romano could take on one of the roles vacated by the departing Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estévez, getting outs in crucial spots and even saving some games when the chance presented itself. Expectations have not matched reality. Yet, it’s hard to admit an expensive mistake.
Perhaps it’s the underlying metrics. The advanced statistics do paint a more hopeful picture than the dismal moving portrait we see on our television screens. Baseball Savant has Romano’s expected ERA currently pegged at 3.58 and expected batting average at .222. For the uninitiated, these figures take into account the quality of the contact made on Romano’s pitches, suggesting that he is often not being hit as hard as one might believe. The whiff and strikeout rates are both above average as well.
To his credit, Romano has always taken the ball when his number is called. There have been no whispered concerns conveyed through the media about his usage or complaints about arm soreness. He’s been nothing but professional in his time with the club, and I admire the mental toughness required in someone who continues to grind in the face of frequent frustration.
The stuff is (mostly) there. The mentality is there. But the results, the most crucial ingredient of all, are not there, and they have been missing for most of the season.
Romano can struggle with command, and he is often betrayed by his slider at the most inopportune of moments. He is incapable of holding on runners, which might pose a problem in a closely-contested postseason game. Most problematic of all, he cannot seem to pitch out of trouble, with bad innings morphing into catastrophes quicker than Thomson and Cotham can contain.
In the end, it comes down to this simple fact: can you trust Jordan Romano to keep the opposition off the scoreboard? The answer is clearly no.
Enough is enough. It is past time to put this man out of his misery and move forward. It is possible Romano might rediscover his form in a less stressful environment. Maybe a different pitching coach and a new voice can unlock his potential. Miami has done wonders for former Phillie Tyler Phillips, who’s carved out a nice role for himself in the Marlins’ bullpen. It would have been nice to hold onto him instead of Carlos Hernández. Alas.
All I know for certain is that it isn’t working in Philadelphia, and the longer the Phillies’ front office continues this season-long exercise in demonstrating the sunk cost fallacy, the shorter the window to identify a different reliever who might be able to help in October, or, more realistically, pitch at a reasonably mediocre level as the team closes in on a division title and a first-round bye in the playoffs. A certain starter in Triple A and highly-touted prospect who has scuffled this year himself might be able to take on the challenge.
On second thought, calling up Andrew Painter might be a bit delusional, the kind of harebrained idea hatched in the fever swamps of sports talk radio that would get you labeled an idiot by the people who know better. Painter’s erratic performance hasn’t warranted a promotion, and the unpredictable nature of relief work might conflict with the careful usage plan the organization has charted for the young man in his first full season back since his Tommy John surgery. It would be crazy to make that move.
But not as crazy as giving Jordan Romano another chance.
Tim Reilly is a freelance writer from Northeast Philadelphia. He can be reached at reillyt7@gmail.com.