Friends, Romano, Countrymen: Lend Me Your Arms

DALLAS — There’s solely a lot oxygen obtainable for big-payroll Northeastern groups which are in disaster regardless of a largely profitable 2024 marketing campaign. And the Yankees, as ever, have been sucking up many of the consideration. However don’t underestimate the furor that’s been floating round Philadelphia for the reason that Fightins’ ignominious four-game NLDS exit. Dave Dombrowski has been rumored to have his finger in lots of pots within the first month of the offseason — an Alec Bohm change-of-scenery commerce right here, a Garrett Crochet blockbuster there — however as of the opening of MLB’s Winter Conferences, nothing had but materialized.

Properly, wait not. Longtime Blue Jays nearer Jordan Romano is on the Rob Ducey Freeway, certain for South Philly on a one-year, $8.5 million contract.

The bullpen was a power for Philadelphia in 2024, with Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm making the All-Star crew, and Orion Kerkering having a great case to do the identical. Or I ought to say, it was a power till it very out of the blue and emphatically wasn’t. As unsettling because the Phillies’ offensive outage was, they most likely would’ve overwhelmed the Mets had the bullpen not coughed up… let’s see right here, I do know I’ve the precise determine someplace… one gajillion runs within the 4 video games of the NLDS.

There was at all times going to be some turnover within the Phillies’ pen, with Hoffman and deadline acquisition Carlos Estévez certain without cost company, however is the very best answer to a historic meltdown actually to throw $8.5 million at a 31-year-old who had a 6.59 ERA in 2024?

Happily, Romano’s 2024 stats don’t inform the entire story. In reality, I’d argue that you might write them off fully. Romano was hamstrung and finally sidelined by elbow soreness, which ended his season simply after Memorial Day — not that Romano, a local of Markham, Ontario, would know what meaning — and resulted in arthroscopic surgical procedure in July. That actually constitutes an damage concern that factored into the Blue Jays’ non-tendering their onetime aid ace, and Romano needed to move a bodily. However when all his joints are in working order, Romano is an excellent aid pitcher.

And a longtime favourite of sure FanGraphs writers. I interviewed Romano in September 2022 and Ben Clemens adopted with an evaluation of his repertoire the next June. Each articles centered on one specific — I’d argue distinctive — attribute: Romano’s extension.

“Wait, he simply signed a one-year contract with a brand new crew, why are we speaking about an extension?”

My dangerous. I imply Romano releases the ball extraordinarily near house plate. In his final full season, 2023, Romano was tied for second — out of 479 pitchers with no less than 500 pitches — in common extension. Which makes some extent of sense, as a result of Romano is 6-foot-5 with arms like a wind turbine. A non-trivial share of my 2022 article may very well be summarized succinctly as: “Dang, this man is tall!”

On the time, I wrote about an apparent benefit of getting lengthy extension: Romano releases the ball a foot nearer to house plate than most pitchers, and two toes nearer than some. That provides the hitter a tiny fraction of a second much less to learn and react to the pitch, which might be not information to you, an individual who made it under the break on a FanGraphs article. You’ve most likely recognized about perceived velocity for 15 years. And the impact is appreciable for a pitcher who throws 97 mph to start with.

Ben famous one other fascinating characteristic of Romano’s supply, nonetheless. A pitcher together with his physique sort and arm angle — 50 levels, which is on the vertical aspect of excessive three quarters — must have what’s referred to as a tall-and-fall supply. Romano is extra drop-and-drive. He will get low, pushes onerous off his again foot, and finally ends up planting his entrance foot all the best way out on the fringe of the mound.

Regardless of his top and arm angle, Romano was solely one hundred and eightieth in vertical launch level in 2023. That’s not simply due to his decrease physique posture, however as a result of — as Ben famous — the farther ahead his foot lands, the decrease the mound is at that time.

The decrease launch level — and decrease strategy angle — accentuated the vertical traits of a pitch that already had extra “rise” than the common four-seamer. So now, as a substitute of sinking into the hitter’s bat path, Romano can paint the highest of the zone and even work above it to generate whiffs and popups. Add in a tough vertical breaking ball, a pitch that will get tagged as a slider — however which Romano advised me he thinks of as a curve — and you’ve got probably the most stereotypical trendy nearer doable.

What are the Phillies going to do with him?

Properly, Romano is a veteran who saved 95 video games between 2021 and 2023, and principally operated as a one-inning nearer. The Phillies are likely to have a fairly fluid bullpen mannequin; final season, Hoffman, Strahm, and Kerkering would are available every time matchups dictated, as did José Alvarado when he was on his sport. Whoever bought the save was of comparatively little significance. Eight totally different pitchers recorded no less than one save for the 95-win Phillies in 2024, and no person saved greater than 13 video games.

Romano may filter into that blend, or supervisor Rob Thomson may use him the best way he used Craig Kimbrel in 2023: As a devoted one-inning nearer for save conditions exterior the high-leverage committee. Besides Romano is barely cheaper, and hopefully he wouldn’t stroll the Phillies out of a number of winnable NLCS video games. Fingers crossed.

It stays to be seen how Thomson will deploy Romano, and the reply is prone to rely upon additional signings and trades which are but to be made. What makes Romano an fascinating match now’s that fastball.

The Phillies’ monitor file for growing expertise is just not dangerous, nevertheless it’s a bit spotty. With that mentioned, the one factor they do higher than anybody else is train fastballs. And never four-seamers.

Of the 5 Phillies starters to throw no less than 50 innings final season, 4 — Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez, and Taijuan Walker — threw three several types of fastball. The one exception, first-time All-Star Cristopher Sánchez, threw nearly solely sinkers.

Even within the bullpen, the place you may get by on two pitches, they like a multi-fastball strategy. 9 of the Phillies’ prime 10 relievers, by innings pitched, threw a sinker no less than 8% of the time. The lone exception was Estévez, who joined the crew in midseason. Alvarado threw his sinker to the exclusion of a four-seamer, and his solely secondary pitch, if you wish to name it that, was a cutter.

Romano throws onerous — which the Phillies like — however he doesn’t throw their attribute pitch. It will not shock me, subsequently, if he spent spring coaching studying a sinker, cutter, or each to go together with his uncommon four-seamer.

Alternatively, Romano may reply a criticism of the Phillies’ roster development — simply not within the unit everybody had in thoughts. In the event you watched the NLDS, you most likely noticed the Phillies’ hitters chase quite a bit, to their final doom. That is an aggressive lineup, Kyle Schwarber however, and when your complete lineup is that this homogeneous, an opponent who figures out one hitter’s weak point can use that answer towards your complete crew in a brief collection.

The Phillies haven’t made a significant offseason transfer to unravel that offensive weak point — both by commerce, free agent singing, or constructing a time machine to deliver again the height model of an on-base machine like Darren Daulton or Bobby Abreu. (Not less than not but.)

However the cost of deadly sameness may even have been leveled towards the bullpen, so it may very well be that Romano is enticing to this crew exactly as a result of he can throw a special take a look at opponents who may’ve anticipated Alvarado, or Kerkering’s sinker-sweeper combo.

Both means, you don’t should assume too onerous about this one. Romano was an elite nearer for 3 years earlier than he bought harm, he throws within the higher 90s, and he was obtainable for barely greater than backup catcher cash. This might find yourself being an particularly productive mixture of participant and crew, representing nice worth for the Phillies and a platform for a Hoffman-like free company for Romano in 12 months’ time. However at minimal, it’s an affordable value for a great pitcher.