TORONTO — Painful as it is shutting Jordan Romano down for two weeks, putting the All-Star closer on the 15-day injured list with lower back inflammation was the right thing to do. Already once, coming out of the All-Star Game when the injury first occurred, the Toronto Blue Jays day-to-day’d their way through his absence. When ready, they used him four times in five days only for his back to lock up again when he retook the mound after three days of rest. The recurrence is an opportunity for the 30-year-old to try and eliminate the issue ahead of the most important games of the year, when the Blue Jays will assuredly heap loads of leverage on him.
“I’m a little down, I didn't want to go on the IL, especially with the stretch we've got coming up. But that's where we're at,” said Romano. “I would need three, four days just to be able to get back out there and it’s not fair for the bullpen to be a man down to try and wait for me. We knew this was the best option to really take care of it 100 per cent and come back with no problems.”
Making him feel a little better was the way the Blue Jays deftly worked around his absence Saturday, getting 4.2 innings of shutout work from Genesis Cabrera, Jay Jackson, Trevor Richards, Nate Pearson and Yimi Garcia in a 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
Pivotal was Cabrera, who took over in the fifth inning after Alek Manoah hit Taylor Ward in the face with the bases loaded — a jarring scene that ended with the left-fielder being carted off the field and taken to hospital for additional testing — and got two outs to limit the damage, along with Richards, who pitched out of another bases-loaded jam in the sixth before striking out the side in the seventh.
That kept the game under wraps as the Blue Jays added on to a lead provided by Santiago Espinal’s two-run homer in the fifth, via a solo shot from Alejandro Kirk and RBI double from Whit Merrifield in the seventh, plus a two-run shot from Kirk in eighth. Romano watched from the sidelines, impressed by how his bullpen-mates locked down a third straight win that also secured a wild-card tiebreaker for the Blue Jays (59-46) over the Angels (54-51), should they need it.
“I know these guys got it. That's never a question — they've been doing it all year,” said Romano. “Guys are going to have to slot into that ninth-inning role, pitching maybe in a little bit different spots. But we've got a great group down there and they'll handle it no problem.”
Between Garcia, Tim Mayza and Erik Swanson, the latter of whom were down after pitching Friday, the Blue Jays still have a trio of solid late-game options, which could be bolstered by Pearson, back up to take Romano’s roster spot, and, relatively soon, the rehabbing Chad Green.
Still, depth can evaporate quickly and with Swanson (eight games and five innings from matching his previous career highs out of the bullpen), Mayza and Garcia ranking among the top 12 in games pitched, their workloads need to be managed.
Hence, the timing of Romano’s IL stint should also give the Blue Jays’ front office pause while they still have time to do something about it ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET trade deadline.
Potentially exacerbating the pressures on their bullpen is the Blue Jays’ plan to run a six-man rotation beginning Tuesday, when Hyun Jin Ryu returns to start against the Baltimore Orioles, reducing the relievers in the bullpen to seven for the foreseeable future.
All of that adds up to additional risk, which the Blue Jays should mitigate by adding not merely a depth reliever, but a leverage arm capable of protecting them in the short-term while Romano recuperates and boosting them once he returns.
While that’s easy to say and hard to do, a reliever had already been on GM Ross Atkins’ to-do list before Tuesday’s cut-off. A top-end rental like St. Louis Cardinals fireballer Jordan Hicks may be out of reach since the Blue Jays aren’t likely to be a sellers’ first choice given the depletion of their farm system, but there are always ways to get creative to make things happen.
One point of debate has been whether it’s ultimately better to devote more trade capital to a bullpen add or a right-handed bat, but perhaps the Romano injury tips the scales.
As that plays out, the Blue Jays can lean on a group of relievers that give manager John Schneider a variety of looks and options. The recently acquired Cabrera has been brilliant over three outings since his acquisition from the St. Louis Cardinals last week, Garcia has recovered from a shaky start, Mayza and Swanson have both been elite, Pearson has shown flashes of being untouchable while Richards has quite literally pitched in every situation this season.
He came on with two on and two out in the sixth, issued an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani — “I’m just following Chappy’s lead there,” quipped Schneider, a reference to an exchange Friday in which Matt Chapman wondered why the slugger was being pitched to — and then caught Mickey Moniak looking before breezing through the seventh.
“It's definitely different having different roles but in the end it's the same – I'm trying to go out there and get outs,” Richards said. “It’s finding the mental space to not eliminate, but to not really think about the game, where we are, what inning it is, what's the score. In the end it's the same thing, get outs and go from there.”
A similar mindset can apply to Romano’s absence, which should be far more noticeable next week when the Orioles arrive before the Blue Jays head to Boston, two series of far higher leverage. Both those lineups can chew up a pitching staff so an important litmus test looms.
“It's definitely a big loss, he's one of the best closers in the league,” said Richards. “But we do have a really good group out there and guys that have really good stuff. We're capable of hanging on for a while, letting him get back to where he needs to be and he'll be back soon.”
Injury begats opportunity but at this time of the year, it can also begat a reprioritization of deadline needs. The Blue Jays remain deep in the bullpen, but time and again baseball shows it’s impossible to be deep enough.
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