Phillies quickly learning the Jordan Romano reality that Blue Jays fans already knew 

During his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, Jordan Romano was among the best relievers in the league, at least prior to the 2024 season. Consistently posting 20+ saves a year while maintaining an ERA below 3.00, Romano managed to finish off many games for the Blue Jays resulting in many victories. However, one caveat in his game had always been his wildness, where he tended to flirt with disaster by putting runners on base but then shutting things down. But of course, things didn't go that smoothly all the time.

Phillies quickly learning the Jordan Romano reality that Blue Jays fans already knew 

The Philadelphia Phillies are quickly learning that reality just a couple of months into the 2025 season, something that most Blue Jays fans had already been accustomed to during Romano's time in Toronto. The latest example came this past Wednesday.

With the Phillies and Blue Jays tied at one heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, instead of pitching a clean 1-2-3 inning, Romano would let Vladimir Guerrero Jr. get on base with a single. On top of that, he would steal his first base of the season off of him as well. Then as many Jays fans would have predicted, Romano would give up the walk-off hit to Alejandro Kirk to hand the game to Toronto in the close, hard-fought match.

On the season, Romano has had his fair share of struggles with the Phillies. He was absolutely horrendous to start 2025 when he flirted with an ERA above 10.00 while giving up multiple runs in four of his first nine appearances. Romano then managed to right the ship for a bit in the early going in May. However, his wildness has reappeared once again during four of his past five outings with multiple runners reaching base.

Romano has compiled an 0-2 record with a 7.54 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, giving up a whopping 19 earned runs and 12 walks in just 22.2 IP over 25 relief appearances. Just for comparison, the Jays’ so-called Romano replacement in Jeff Hoffman has also struggled a bit, but has posted better numbers overall. Hoffman has a 5-2 record, with a 5.74 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 27 games. In addition, Hoffman has been either really on or really off his game this year, but doesn’t generally flirt with disaster which Romano tends to do.

There is still a lot of season left for the Phillies closer to turn things around. But even if Romano eventually does, Phillies fans just have to get used to the flare of the dramatic that he brings much more than one would want. At least that is something that Blue Jays fans hope Hoffman doesn’t eventually evolve into with the way things have gone during his tenure with his new club.