Jordan Romano’s latest stop has landed him in the one place that can make a struggling pitcher’s life even harder: Coors Field.
The former Phillies reliever, whose 2025 stint in Philadelphia went off the rails fast, was added to the Colorado Rockies’ 26-man roster ahead of Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. For Romano, it’s another chance to claw back some value after a brutal run that has taken him from Toronto success to two ugly recent stops with the Phillies and Los Angeles Angels.
Romano’s career began on a strong note with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he put up a 2.90 ERA and collected 105 saves in 231 appearances over six seasons. But the decline became impossible to ignore in 2024, when he was limited to 15 games and posted a 6.59 ERA.
The Phillies still took the plunge, signing the two-time All-Star to a one-year, $8.5 million deal in hopes he could stabilize the back end of the bullpen. Instead, the move unraveled quickly. Romano was unusable in high-leverage spots, finished with an 8.23 ERA in 49 appearances, and was shut down in late August because of a finger injury.
That should have been the end of the road, but the Los Angeles Angels gave him a $2 million contract for the 2026 season. That experiment collapsed almost immediately. Romano was cut before the end of April after putting up a 10.13 ERA in 11 outings.
The Rockies tried him on a minor league deal in early May, and he was at least steadier there, logging a 4.15 ERA in nine Triple-A appearances. Now comes the tougher test. Colorado’s home park is a brutal place for any pitcher, and Coors Field has the numbers to back that up - Baseball Savant ranked it at the top of its park factor list, measuring it as the most hitter-friendly home environment in the sport.
For Romano, that makes this assignment especially unforgiving. If he’s going to rebuild anything, it has to happen in the most dangerous setting imaginable for a pitcher trying to rediscover himself.
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The challenge, of course, is that Colorados draft board is never quite the same as everyone elses. Pitching at altitude remains a special case in Denver, and the club is digging into why some arms translate there while others do not. Recent draft history also gives the front office plenty to weigh, with only Gabriel Hughes on the active roster among the teams recent first-rounders while Chase Dollander is coming back from Tommy John surgery and Jordan Beck and Sterlin Thompson are still in Triple-A. [Read more 🡒]