RADIO
Jordan Romano 2021 Player Outlook: Small Sample of Success, Dripping with Upside
4 years agoAcross a whopping 30 big league innings, Romano has certainly been Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde as the first 15 in 2019 were awful, and 2020 was fantastic. During last season's breakout, Romano boasted a 2.40 xFIP and flashed a rare groundball (58.1 GB%), soft-contact (25.8 Hard%), high-whiff ability (36.8 K%). In his forgetful 2019 campaign, Romano threw his fastball and slider at a 60%/40% split. In 2020 that split flipped to 40/60, and evidently it was beneficial - along with a 2 MPH uptick in velocity. The stuff was electric, and gave opposing batter fits. His O-Contact% dropped 23 points from 2019, with his overall Contact% dropping 15. He gave up the eighth-lowest contact among all relievers. Pretty impressive for a guy that also owns a 58.1 GB%. After not allowing an earned run in his first nine innings of 2020, his stellar campaign was cut even shorter due to a middle finger injury that cost him all of September. Prior to the injury he had converted two of three save opportunities. Regardless of who sees the majority of save ops for the Blue Jays in 2021 (Romanon, Rafael Dolis, Free Agent), I believe Romano will get enough to warrant his current 219 NFBC ADP due to the upside and strikeout totals.
