The Philadelphia Phillies kicked off the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings in a hurry on Monday afternoon. ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that the Phillies and right-hander Jordan Romano are in an agreement on a contract.
Closer Jordan Romano and the Philadelphia Phillies are in agreement on a free agent contract, pending physical, sources tell ESPN. Romano, 31, was nontendered by Toronto earlier this offseason and joins a Phillies bullpen that lost Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez to free agency.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 9, 2024
Phillies sign former Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano to one-year deal
The deal obviously hinges on Romano passing a physical. The 31-year-old Canadian was non-tendered by the Toronto Blue Jays after staggering through an injury-plagued 2024 season. After posting a 6.59 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in only 15 appearances, he was shut down midseason and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair an impingement in his right elbow in early July.
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Scott Lauber reported that the deal is a one-year contract worth $7.75 million, according to a major league source. That amount is the projected salary he would have received in arbitration this winter. Update: MLB.com's Todd Zolecki reports that the deal is worth $8.5 million.
Romano was an All-Star closer in 2022 and 2023 for the Blue Jays, recording 36 saves in each of those seasons. Before 2024, the 10th-round Toronto draft pick had a career 2.67 ERA and 1.12 WHIP with a 30.5 percent strikeout rate since his MLB debut in 2019.
After a challenging season, he still has a career 2.90 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with 285 strikeouts in 229 2/3 innings, racking up 105 saves in 118 opportunities. Romano was actually a Rule 5 returnee after getting picked up by the Chicago White Sox in the 2018 Rule 5 Draft before being dealt to the Texas Rangers. After he didn't make the Rangers' roster, he was sent back to the Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays had been hoping to work out a reunion with their homegrown talent. Toronto general manager Ross Atkins also confirmed that they had no medical concerns heading into 2025 after Romano spent the remainder of the 2024 season rehabbing and throwing at the team's complex in Dunedin, Florida, according to Blue Jays beat reporter Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.
Romano joins a Phillies bullpen that lost Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estévez to free agency. He'll pair up with fellow right-hander Matt Strahm and lefties Orion Kerkering and José Alvarado at the back end of the bullpen. Manager Rob Thomson might elect to anoint Romano the closer, or he could opt to go back to his closer-by-committee he had been using in 2024 before the team acquired Estévez at the trade deadline.