Ricky Romero Released By Giants’ Triple-A Affiliate, Now Let’s Get Something Straight

It was more tough news this weekend for the Blue Jays’ one-time ace, Ricky Romero, as he was released by the Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League. This, of course, also means that his time in the San Francisco Giants organization, where he’s tried to mount a comeback after being released by the Blue Jays in the spring of 2015, has come to an end.

Romero started four games for Sacramento this season, allowing 16 hits, 11 earned runs, and walking 16 in just 14.2 innings. They’re ugly numbers, and not really worth dwelling on. In fact, even bothering to commemorate Romero’s unceremonious release seems almost cruel at this point, doesn’t it? After all, we all know the Romero story, don’t we?

Well, that’s actually the thing that’s sparked this piece. Because I’m not sure everybody does quite know the Romero story.

With apologies for singling out the folks Jays Journal, who are surely not the only ones, here’s how their post on his release by Sacramento describes the end of Romero’s Blue Jays tenure:

Thaaaaaaaaaaat’s not quite how I’d put it.

For a long time fans were mystified by what happened to Romero. He suddenly just couldn’t throw strikes, and many thought it was more mental than physical. A theory I remember kicking around at the time, myself, was that Rays then-manager Joe Maddon had exposed the fact that Romero, even at the best of times, had struggled to get left-handers out, and as he continued to be fed more and more left-handed batters, his numbers plummeted. Others, like noted current manager of the shitbag Red Sox, John Farrell, felt the answer was more simple. After a tough July 2012 start, Farrell famously told reporters, “What I’d like to see from Ricky is just to get back to the basics. Where’s the tough kid from East L.A.?”

To be fair, I don’t know that Farrell knew at the time that what Romero was going through was far from more mental than physical. And that his toughness should have never been in doubt.

Last summer, with fans extraordinarily dumbly making comparisons between Romero’s breakdown and a then-slumping Marcus Stroman, Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling laid it all out there:

That is the story of Ricky Romero and the end of his Blue Jays career.

Just so we’re clear.