Jordan Romano Is A Low-Risk, High-Reward Move For Phillies

The Dodgers and Mets have already made their big splashes this off-season with more moves potentially to come. Leaving the Phillies needing to play catch up. Their first notable free agent signing came just the other day. They brought in closer Jordan Romano on a 1-year deal worth $8.5 million.

It is not Juan Soto, and it is not Blake Snell. The Romano signing did not dominate the headlines like the Mets and Dodgers' moves. But that does not mean it is not a good move. What the Phillies got in Romano is a potentially dominant closer, with minimal risk.

Romano was the Blue Jays closer for years, and he was great for them. From 2021 to 2023 he saved 95 games with an ERA of 2.73. Opponents batted under .200 against him. He was consistently, across 3 seasons, one of the best closers in the game.

But last year was a disaster. Romano was banged up going into camp, never got healthy, and was shut down by the end of May. Hence why he was available at such a small cost.

He pitched in only 15 games and had an ERA over 6.0. But much of that damage came in two bad games. When you pitch only 13.2 innings, a couple of bad outings can ruin your stats. He gave up 5 runs across .2 innings in those 2 bad games. Otherwise, his ERA was 3.46. Not great, but not bad either considering the injuries.

Coming off a year where he didn't pitch is obviously a small risk. Especially since we have not seen him pitch since the injury. But they are not paying him like the star closer he used to be. It is a small 1-year deal. If he struggles, you can just move on.

Corey Seidman from NBC Sports Philly joined The Best Show Ever this week and shared a similar sentiment about the move.

"Well, from 2021 to 2023, he was one of the best closers in the American League. This past season he didn't pitch much because of an elbow injury that stifled him from from spring training onward. He had arthroscopic surgery in July, didn't pitch after May 29th, and that's the only reason he was available.

I think that the Phillies looked at this as a low-risk, decent-sized reward alternative to paying closer like 40 or $50 million because Carlos Estevez and Jeff Hoffman might be looking at like three years times $12 million. You're talking about guys who might end up making 4 or 5 times as much in total value as Romano does on this contract.

So if he stays healthy, if he performs, it could be a steal. That's a huge if, though the Phillies do seem to feel that if this is their only high-profile bullpen addition, they feel confident with that group of four being Jordan Romano and Orion Kerkering going from the right side with Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado from the left side."

You can check out the full interview with Corey Seidman below. He also talked about the Alec Bohm trade rumors, and what other moves they might make, including their interest in star international free agent Roki Sasaki.

Signing Romano addresses one problem, but there is still a lot of work to do. Even without the Dodgers and Mets both making big moves, the Phillies needed to make some moves. With the way the last 2-seasons ended, it is clear running it back is not an option.

The two teams in the NL that made it further than you, including the team that won it all, were clearly not content to run it back. So why should the Phillies be content to do so?

But this is a good first step. And it is a move that won't prevent further moves. If they dumped a ton of money on a potential closer, it could prevent them from making a move elsewhere. But they did not have to do that with Jordan Romano. They got that potential shutdown closer, without having to pay him like one.

The Phillies just collapsed epically. Their bats went ice cold, and they let the hated Mets kick them out in 4 games. After 3 straight years of the bats blowing up in an important place, people want to shake things up. And the most obvious place to upgrade is in the outfield.

Much of the team is locked up. 1B and SS are not changing anytime soon. You could feasibly move Trea Turner somewhere else, like 2nd Base. But if that happened, it would just mean they are moving Stott to SS.

They have 1 more year of JT Realmuto and 2 more years of Castellanos. CF could change, Dombrowksi certainly did not make any commitments to Johan Rojas, but they might have that spot earmarked for Justin Crawford.

Left Field is the place to look at. Dombrowski might have said that the team likes Brandon Marsh, but that does not mean they will keep him there. He is a platoon player, who has not even been consistent in his half of the platoon.

Looking at the landscape of the Free Agent Market, Left Field is also the easiest place to upgrade. Jayson Stark joined The Best Show Ever this week and talked about some of the places the Phillies could go.

"You've got Anthony Santander, who's a switch hitter with power and is a good outfielder. You're watching Teoscar Hernandez with the Dodgers. He's strikeout-prone, but he's a he's a winning player. Tyler O'Neill is definitely a name to watch. He's hurt a lot, but right-handed hitter with big thump. I know they kick the tires on him at the deadline. Jurickson Profar is to me the profile of the kind of hitter they desperately need." 

Stark also mentioned to not completely rule Juan Soto out. It is not likely, but also not impossible. We talked about that in the below article. But for this list, we are going to keep it to names they have a decent chance at signing.

Related: Juan Soto Unlikely To Come To Phillies, But Dont Rule It Out

So how well do those 4 guys Jayson Stark mentioned fit with this team? Let's take a look at each of them.

Santander has 105 Hrs over the last 3 seasons. He hit 44 last season, with over 100 RBIs. The Phillies need some right-handed pop, they have needed it since they lost Rhys Hoskins. He can certainly provide that. His AVG is a bit low, but he is not a big swing-and-miss guy despite that. His whiff rate of 20% is better than 76% of the league. His K rate of 19.4% is better than 66% of the league. He might be a power guy with a low average, but he does put the ball in play.  

To this point, he has played in Right Field. But you could move him over to Left if needed. He might look too similar to the guys already on this team, but the actual numbers suggest a more careful approach than some of the current Phillies.

Teoscar Hernandez would fit right in with the current lineup. He is a big power guy, 116 Hrs over the past 4 seasons, with a lot of strikeouts, just under 400 over the past 2 seasons. So if you want something different, he is not your guy. Signing him would be doubling down on the current approach of this lineup, which we saw cost them vs the Mets. He is just as much of a swing-and-miss/chase guy as some of the hitters currently on this team.

But as we are seeing this year, he is a big-time playoff performer. He has helped carry the Dodgers while some of their big names put up smaller numbers than you would expect. His OPS was over 1.000 in the Padres series. But he is 0-14 in the NLCS. So you can see the hot and cold he provides. Maybe something the Phillies want to avoid given they already have other guys like that. That said, he will provide you with moments like this.

Tyler O'Neill will remind people of Kyle Schwarber, just from the right side. He hits HRs, he walks, and he strikes out. He hit 31 HRs this year in 113 games. That is some big thump from the right side. He is also a better fielder than Schwarber. O'Neill won two gold gloves in Left field earlier in his career. His overall numbers don't paint the picture of an elite left Fielder though. He has a great arm, but average range. But even if he doesn't win another Gold Glove, he would not be the liability Kyle Schwarber used to be out there. At worst, you are getting average. The Phillies won both their World Series with far worse fielders in Left.

There are some heavy splits there though. His OPS drops from 1.180 against Lefties, to .693 vs Righties. But he did hit 15 HRs vs righties. He is not unplayable vs righties the way Marsh is vs Lefties, but there is a large dropoff that takes him from being a great player on 1 side, to an average player on the other.

Like Jayson Stark said, he is a name they have looked into in the past. They tried to get him at the deadline, but nothing came to be. Now that he is a free agent, he might be the guy Dombrowski looks at. Will it fix the issues they had with not putting the ball in play? No. But he would basically provide what Rhys Hoskins used to provide for this team.

Jurickson Profar might be the guy who excites Phillies fans the most. He has okay pop, but more importantly, he makes contact. His Whiff Rate, K Rate, Chase Rate, and Walk Rate are all in the top 10% of the league. He would bring a different element to this Phillies lineup.

Jayson Stark talked about how the Phillies need a different kind of hitter.

"They need somebody in that lineup who will make contact in a big spot and understand that's enough. Too many big swings in that lineup where only contact was needed. You watch the Mets play and you see how they take what the defense gives them in big moments in the postseason. Who's the Philly who does that? I'm sure that they will be shopping for that kind of guy."

Profar is that different kind of hitter. Stark described exactly what Profar did for the Padres. He might also provide a shakeup to the culture of the team, that desperately needs a change. For me, this is the guy. The other 3 would be good options, but Profar feels like the exact kind of player they need to fix the problems that cost them in each of the past 3 seasons.