Jordan Romano to visit Dr. Keith Meister after another setback in elbow injury recovery

There was more unfortunate news regarding the Blue Jays bullpen that emerged on Saturday.

It was reported that closer Jordan Romano underwent another setback during his recovery from a right elbow injury he suffered back in late-May, as he felt more discomfort in his elbow after throwing yesterday. The team shut him down until further evaluation takes place. Romano will visit Dr. Keith Meister, an orthopedic surgeon based out of Texas who also spearheaded Alek Manoah’s elbow procedure, on Tuesday.

Romano was placed on the 15-day IL on May 31st due to right elbow inflammation, but an MRI following his placement revealed no structural damage.  The Canadian closer also missed two weeks and some change to open the season, but he was able to return on April 16th. When healthy, Romano made 15 appearances pitching to a 6.59 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 8.6 K/9, and 8 saves.

He’s struggled mightily in high leverage stations this season, allowing a .300/.364/.700 slash line with a 1.064 OPS, two home runs, and two doubles to opposing hitters in those instances. Both home runs were walk offs; Adley Rutschman homered against him on May 15th to defeat the Jays, and Matt Vierling hit a three-run shot on May 25th in a 14-11 Toronto loss.

Romano’s news doesn’t bode well at all given the state of Toronto’s bullpen. Tim Mayza was DFA’d earlier today, Erik Swanson currently has an ERA north of 15 in Triple-A Buffalo, and Yimi García is also working his way back from an elbow injury as well. In García’s case, if all continues to go well with his rehab, he may be able to be back by the All-Star break. Romano’s injury also heavily impacts his potential availability at the trade deadline, and if Toronto has any intentions to continue competing, they will likely retain García and/or Green to keep them in position to do so.

Given the above, the Blue Jays are leaning heavily on Chad Green and Trevor Richards to handle a majority of the high leverage innings, with Zach Pop, Brendon Little, and Génesis Cabrera beginning to assume more of those frames as time goes by.