Blue Jays Discussion: 2024-25 Off-season: The free agent watch begins (and sometimes old baseball radio broadcasts)

[The Nemesis]

That sucks, finally get a really good Canadian pitcher and he has one down year and gets cast aside

One down year because of a serious injury that seemed to not be healing properly or getting him to rebound properly. If it was just a matter of sucking they would've non-tendered Pop too. I suspect they looked at the reports from his last checkups and were spooked at the probability and timeliness of him getting back to anything resembling what he was.

This is the life of relievers. They are great until they aren't. They're reliable until they implode. They're reliable until they break. It sucks but I've been prepared for this ever since they stopped giving anything resembling an informed status report on him late in the season. That screamed "it's not going right but we're not airing that publicly." Maybe he claws his way back eventually but right now it seems like he's toast until proven otherwise.

 

[ChuckNorris4Cup]

Interesting that they were willing to sign Chad Green and wait a whole season for him to recover, but not the same for Romano, kind of Interesting.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Really not a big fan of letting Romano walk. 7.75 for what is your most reliable bullpen arm seems fine no?

Guess whatever data they have on his arm likely doesn't look too good.

Washington did the same with Brandon Finnegan too. Made the NL All-Star team and finished second in the NL with 38 saves. Yet he's out on his ass.

 

[Suntouchable13]

They can still negotiate a deal with him for less money. They simply did not want him at 7.75. Would he even be anything but a huge question mark if they brought him back, though? He could very well be toast, his money could be used on someone else.

 

[The Podium]

Finnegan was non-tendered too and at this point I think he may be the better option

 

[Suntouchable13]

Finnegan was non-tendered too and at this point I think he may be the better option

Could be, but relievers are so weird. How come Washington doesn't want this guy anymore? Something is fishy.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Finnegan is kinda trash and too volatile to keep around

 

[The Nemesis]

Interesting that they were willing to sign Chad Green and wait a whole season for him to recover, but not the same for Romano, kind of Interesting.

Green had TJ didn't he? As serious as that is, it's a pretty straightforward path for guys getting back. He was also signed for like half of what Romano was scheduled to make (I checked and the deal looks like it was 2 years, $8.5m plus some options baked in)

Like I said before, the obvious explanation would seem to be that there's been something about Romano's recovery from his injuries last year that has the Jays spooked into believing it's not worth the risk to pay him what they would've had to tender him for.

 

[ChuckNorris4Cup]

Green had TJ didn't he? As serious as that is, it's a pretty straightforward path for guys getting back. He was also signed for like half of what Romano was scheduled to make (I checked and the deal looks like it was 2 years, $8.5m plus some options baked in)

Like I said before, the obvious explanation would seem to be that there's been something about Romano's recovery from his injuries last year that has the Jays spooked into believing it's not worth the risk to pay him what they would've had to tender him for.

Yeah he had TJ I think he only pitched like 17 innings with the Yankees the year before the Jays signed him in the off season, and waited the whole year for him to recover to throw 12 innings. He obviously was healthy last season and had his moments, but he also had some bad moments especially near the end of the season if I remember

I just find it a little interesting how they took the risk with Chad but not with Romano, but I've been questioning this upper management for years, so basically anything they do is questionable imo. I will say though I'm not worried if Romano is here or not tbh, I don't think he was that dominant if being honest, so I don't care if he's here or not. I think there are better pitchers/closers out there anyways.

 

[The Nemesis]

Yeah he had TJ I think he only pitched like 17 innings with the Yankees the year before the Jays signed him in the off season, and waited the whole year for him to recover to throw 12 innings. He obviously was healthy last season and had his moments, but he also had some bad moments especially near the end of the season if I remember

I just find it a little interesting how they took the risk with Chad but not with Romano, but I've been questioning this upper management for years, so basically anything they do is questionable imo. I will say though I'm not worried if Romano is here or not tbh, I don't think he was that dominant if being honest, so I don't care if he's here or not. I think there are better pitchers/closers out there anyways.

I think it's different because the risk is different. TJ returns are a known quantity for the most part by now. You know the timeline, you know the likelihood of recapturing something resembling previous form, and you know the chances that it doesn't work out.

But Romano had arthroscopic surgery in July for some sort of elbow impingement. They've had like 5 months to watch him since then as he's rehabbed and whatever. If they have that much evidence and chose to walk away it suggests to me that they think the risk is greater. Maybe it's because the injury is more unpredictable. Maybe it's because he's shown something in his workouts or tests that suggest this isn't a solved issue. Maybe he's lost velocity. Who knows. But it seems pretty reasonable to assume that they took the risk with Green because they had reason to expect him to turn out fine but won't take it with Romano because either they don't know how it'll turn out or think it'll turn out poorly for him.

And maybe it blows up in their faces and he latches on with the Orioles or something and pitches well for them. That's the risk. But for the $7m+ that they were scheduled to pay him they can go and get someone or a couple of someones who can fill Romano's vacated hole in the pen and others. Because the issues in this bullpen go beyond just Romano being there or not.

 

[ChuckNorris4Cup]

I think it's different because the risk is different. TJ returns are a known quantity for the most part by now. You know the timeline, you know the likelihood of recapturing something resembling previous form, and you know the chances that it doesn't work out.

But Romano had arthroscopic surgery in July for some sort of elbow impingement. They've had like 5 months to watch him since then as he's rehabbed and whatever. If they have that much evidence and chose to walk away it suggests to me that they think the risk is greater. Maybe it's because the injury is more unpredictable. Maybe it's because he's shown something in his workouts or tests that suggest this isn't a solved issue. Maybe he's lost velocity. Who knows. But it seems pretty reasonable to assume that they took the risk with Green because they had reason to expect him to turn out fine but won't take it with Romano because either they don't know how it'll turn out or think it'll turn out poorly for him.

And maybe it blows up in their faces and he latches on with the Orioles or something and pitches well for them. That's the risk. But for the $7m+ that they were scheduled to pay him they can go and get someone or a couple of someones who can fill Romano's vacated hole in the pen and others. Because the issues in this bullpen go beyond just Romano being there or not.

Obviously I agree they probably know something being so close to him, but again tbh I was okay with letting Romano go last off season and keeping Hicks over him, just unfortunate Hicks wanted to be a starter, he was a good reliever imo and I liked him he threw hard. They might even look at a Garcia reunion to replace Romano, but I don't care as much as I did say a year or two ago. I'm just totally done with Shatkins and I'm having a hard time supporting the Jays a little right now, as long as those 2 clowns are here running them I have no hope for the team unfortunately.

If they expect to be somewhat competitive they need to fix that bullpen big time, and get some legit offense clutch power, with a 3B or a 2B, I just don't trust them, would rather someone else be hired to make the decisions going forward.