Longtime Toronto Blue Jays Closer Shockingly Listed as Non-Tender Candidate

Friday is the non-tender deadline around Major League Baseball and at least one member of the Jays is a surprising possibility to be cut.

Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Jordan Romano (68) pitches during the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on April 22. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Friday will be an interesting night for several players around Major League Baseball...

That is the non-tender deadline, meaning that teams have to decide if they want to "tender" contracts to arbitration-eligible players.

If a team doesn't want to tender a contract to an arbitration-eligible player, that player will become a free agent.

MLBTradeRumors published a list of players they think could be possible non-tenders on Thursday, but they admitted there is no definitive way of knowing who will be non-tendered until the deadline comes.

As we do each offseason, we’ll take a look at arb-eligible players we believe have a realistic shot at being let go. To be clear, this is not a list of players we think are likelier than not to be non-tendered. These are players we consider to have at least a10-20% chance of being cut — a broad group who wouldn’t strike us as completely surprising.

2024 Non-Tender Candidates https://t.co/nI8kxrtFy6 pic.twitter.com/t8wdSKW9kd

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) November 21, 2024

One surprising name on this list of possibilities is Toronto Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano. It's surprising because of how much success Romano has had with the Jays since debuting in 2019. Lifetime, he's 20-17 with a 2.90 ERA. He's saved 105 games and made two All-Star teams. He's also been a part of playoff teams in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

The Blue Jays have given all the signals that they want to compete in 2025, so getting rid of a long-tenured back-end arm seems to run counter to that.

However, on the flip side, we must look at the following: Romano is headed into the final year of his contract and MLBTradeRumors projects his arbitration number to be nearly $8 million. Romano was on the shelf much of 2024 with elbow problems and made just 15 appearances, pitching to a 6.59 ERA. Is there a better way to spend nearly $8 million?

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