Jordan Romano was a tough guy to keep track of this off-season. At various times he could be found fine-tuning his game in Toronto, sitting in a classroom in Oklahoma or pitching in Mexico with the world watching.
It’s rather uncommon for a young pitcher to accomplish all that in a few months, let alone when he’s just two years removed from Tommy John surgery. The Canadian-born Toronto Blue Jays right-hander had already pitched his way back into the conversation as a legitimate prospect just one year after his arm stopped working, but he still had plenty more to do.
His busy off-season began with a two-week stint at his home in Markham, Ont., where he took a few lessons at the Toronto Mets facility. Before long he was off to Florida to attend Camp 85 — a 12 day instructional league run by former MLB pitcher Rick Langford.
Afterwards, he hopped in his truck and drove 18 hours northwest to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., where he majored in Business Administration before being drafted by the Blue Jays in 2014. Romano continued his workouts while completing an English course and a Christian worldview class, leaving him just one semester shy of graduating with a degree he hopes to complete next off-season.
The unconventional winter extended to the new year when the 24-year-old was asked to join team Italy at the World Baseball Classic. Down by four runs in the ninth inning of a March 9 game against Mexico, Romano promptly retired the side, picking up a pair of strikeouts.
His team then rallied to score five runs in walk-off fashion, leaving him as the winning pitcher in what he described as “the wildest game I have ever been a part of.”
After returning from the WBC, Romano quickly returned to the grind of spring training, but he saw his busy off-season as a luxury. Just two years ago, he had no choice but to sit around.
On Mar. 31, 2015, mere days before the new season began, the Blue Jays prospect underwent one of the more gruelling surgical procedures in professional sports. Just a year after being selected in the 10th round of the draft by his hometown ball club, he fell victim to the pitcher’s worst nightmare — Tommy John surgery.
Right away, he knew what he’d done.
“When I threw the pitch, I honestly knew before I got the MRI what it would be,” Romano said from his hotel in Florida, “I was like ‘man, I just tore my UCL. I’m going to be out a full year.'”
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The year-long rehabilitation process played tricks on him. At times, he would sit on the training table staring at his swollen arm, wondering if he’d ever pitch again.
“I thought about it all the time,” he said. “Probably the first month of the injury I thought ‘how am I ever going to throw again? There’s no way I can throw again.'”
As time passed, his arm strength returned and the following spring he earned a spot in the Lansing Lugnuts’ starting rotation. He made quite the first impression with the Blue Jays’ Class-A affiliate, allowing one run in seven innings while striking out seven for a memorable debut.
“I was visualizing being on the mound and how I was going to (pitch),” he said. “It’s kind of weird to say, but I knew I was going to do that. I didn’t want to just rehab the whole year and then go two innings. I wanted to go seven.”
Standing 6-foot-4 and armed with a fastball, sharp slider and developing changeup, Romano recorded a 2.11 ERA with 72 strikeouts and 27 walks over 72.2 innings in Lansing. He finished his return season the way he started it — striking out a career-high 10 hitters in six innings. As always, it was his fastball that stifled the opposition.
“He has a fastball with above average major-league velocity,” said Blue Jays pitching coordinator Jeff Ware. “It’s a swing-and-miss fastball that plays hard. It looks hard. It seems to jump on the hitters and they don’t seem to pick it up very well.”
Romano’s fastball was so good often times he didn’t need to use anything else.
He’s worked hard to turn his slider into more of a power pitch, and he continues to refine his changeup, a pitch he was hesitant to use at times in years past. Ware, the pitching coach at Lansing last year, forced the righty to throw ten changeups a game, knowing it’s a pitch he’ll need as he advances through the minors.
“I never wanted to throw it. I felt like my fastball and my slider were so much more advanced,” Romano said. “But this year, I’m pretty confident throwing it. It’s still my third-best pitch, but it’s not third by far now.”
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After pitching in a playoff atmosphere at the WBC and developing his secondary pitches, Romano has the potential to put on another show this season. It doesn’t matter to him where he pitches or how many strikeouts he amasses. The Canadian has one goal for 2017.
“I want to stay healthy the whole year and make my start every fifth day,” he said. “I don’t want to be dealing with a little shoulder or elbow injury here or there. I want to make all my starts and just try to be as consistent as possible.”
Romano will begin the season up a level in advanced-A ball with the Dunedin Blue Jays. When he starts his team’s second game of the season against Clearwater on Friday, he’ll be looking to kick off this campaign the same way he did the last one.
