The Toronto Blue Jays and hometown reliever Jordan Romano could be headed towards a divorce.
The team is non-tendering the closer and sending him to free agency one year early, it confirmed Friday. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi had previously reported the news, while ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first.
Romano made $7.75 million in 2024, and still had one year of club control remaining on his contract. Per MLB Trade Rumours, he’s projected to earn the same amount after arbitration. The Blue Jays could hypothetically chose to re-sign the 31-year-old at a different number this winter, but Romano will be testing the open market for the first time in his career.
The Markham, Ont., native made just 15 appearances for the Blue Jays in 2024 before undergoing an arthroscopic surgery in his throwing elbow, which eventually sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
When healthy, Romano served as a reliable reliever, eventually becoming the Blue Jays’ closer in 2020 and earning back-to-back All-Star appearances in 2022 and 2023.
In 2022, Romano finished third in the American League with 36 saves on 42 opportunities, owning a 2.11 ERA with 73 strikeouts and 21 walks — a career-best season for which Romano earned the Tip O’Neill Award as the best Canadian-born baseball player by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
He followed up in 2023 with 36 saves and a 2.90 ERA across 59 innings.
Through 229.2 innings with the Blue Jays, Romano owns a career 2.90 ERA with 105 saves and a 20-17 record.
The Blue Jays also non-tendered reliever Dillon Tate, but tendered all their remaining arbitration-eligible players, reaching an agreement with Erik Swanson to avoid arbitration.
The deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players is Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
