Jordan Romano Is Off to a Promising Start with the Angels
April 11, 2026 - Written by Cade Lalim
Jordan Romano has been a GREAT offseason addition:
— SleeperAngels (@SleeperAngels) April 10, 2026
0.00 ERA
4/4 SV
0 H
7 Ks
0.40 WHIP pic.twitter.com/wYDuTlM6LS
Two-time All Star with 117 career saves, Jordan Romano is off to an exceptional start with the Angels after a down couple of years where he didn’t look like himself. He’s a veteran of eight major-league seasons, owning a career 3.67 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. He was phenomenal during his All Star seasons in 2022 and 2023 where he logged 36 saves each season with a sub-three earned run average.
Things started to unravel for Romano during his last season with Toronto back in 2024. He battled elbow inflammation in his right throwing arm the whole season only allowing him to pitch 13.2 innings. He began the year on the 15-day injured list and was then activated mid-April. He would go on only to appear in 15 games before returning to the injured list for the rest of the year. During the offseason, the Blue Jays decided not to tender him a contract making him a free agent. He left Toronto for the first time during his career and signed a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies on a $8.5 million deal.
Blue Jays (2024)
6.59 ERA | 7.23 xERA | 6.17 FIP | 4.25 xFIP
Phillies (2025)
8.23 ERA | 4.08 xERA | 5.39 FIP | 4.33 xFIP
As seen above, his earned run average hasn’t been pretty since 2024, but his expected numbers show that he was getting unlucky and pitched better than his surface numbers. Looking into his pitch velocity, both his four-seam and slider lost around 1mph of velocity from 2024 to 2025. In years where Romano has thrown each pitch the most over his career, his four-seam averaged 97.6 mph in 2021, while his slider averaged 87.3 in 2022.
Romano’s Numbers Show He Might Be Back
Romano signed with the Angels back in December for a $2 million contract. He has slid into the team's closer role after Kenley Jansen signed with the Detroit Tigers over the offseason. In the small six game sample size so far, Romano has shown signs of returning to his normal self and has been a reliable arm out of the bullpen. He’s logged five innings without allowing any runs and a 0.40 WHIP. He’s struck out seven batters while walking two. He’s also converted all four save opportunities he’s been given. Both his fastball and slider have lost around 1mph of velocity, but he’s still being effective. He’s got 7.5 feet of extension which helps give a deception boost of speed to his pitches.
Most of his outs are coming from either the strikeout or flyout. 87.5% of contact off of him have been hit in the air which is the highest it has been during his career. During his best years in 2021 and 2022, he was forcing ground balls around 45% of the time which is just above average. The good thing is that the hits he’s giving up aren’t being hit hard at all. He’s had an average exit velocity of 81.2 mph so far which is way lower than it’s been in the past. This is something to monitor throughout the season, because if he starts to get hit harder, those flyouts could turn into doubles and home runs. So far no batters have gotten a barrel off him which is encouraging. His BABIP is currently .000 which is really good, but will be impossible to sustain.
Is His Performance Sustainable?
His numbers right now are amazing, but they will not look like what they do now when the season comes to an end. For him to go from where he’s been the last two seasons to where he is now is really cool to see. It would be great to see be an All Star caliber reliever again, but if he can just be above average and be a reliable closer, that’ll be a win. Mike Maddux’s work seems to be paying off. José Soriano is looking like a Cy Young candidate, while Jack Kochanowicz has looked a lot better to start the year. Sam Bachman and Chase Silseth have also seen improvements. Angels pitchers as a staff currently rank fourth in HR/9, tenth in K/9, and eleventh in fWAR showing big signs of improvement. It would be huge if they can continue this level of production throughout the duration of the season.
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