NEW YORK — The Phillies have pressed pause on Jordan Romano’s torturous season. Romano, their biggest offseason bullpen addition, who was supposed to be a steady late-inning presence but authored one of the worst seasons by a reliever in Phillies history, was placed on the injured list Tuesday with what the team described as right middle finger inflammation.
The transaction could signal the beginning of the end of Romano’s time in Philadelphia. He has an ERA of 8.23, a number that ballooned when he surrendered four more runs Monday in the Phillies’ blowout loss to the New York Mets.
They made Romano, 32, their headliner offseason bullpen pickup on a one-year, $8.5 million deal as Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estévez departed Philadelphia for multiyear contracts elsewhere. It was a risk that backfired.
The Phillies on Tuesday also released reliever Joe Ross, another offseason pickup. Ross, who signed for $4 million last winter, had a 5.12 ERA in 51 innings this season. The Phillies added right-handers Lou Trivino and Daniel Robert to the bullpen to replace Romano and Ross.
Romano missed most of 2024 after undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery to repair an impingement, pitching only 13 2/3 innings for the Toronto Blue Jays. The Phillies saw him throw in the offseason, and deemed the two-time All-Star a decent bounce-back candidate, but Romano’s stuff has never returned.
The Phillies have seen glimpses of a high-90s fastball, but never at a consistent rate. Three of the four hardest pitches he threw all season came April 19 — a disastrous outing that skewed Romano’s entire season. He allowed six runs on six hits to the Miami Marlins that day. It set a troubling tone for the affable Canadian’s season.
The Phillies saw wild fluctuations in Romano’s velocity; he’d enter some games throwing 97 or 98 mph, then others at 93 mph. It became a problem. The Phillies could not trust Romano without knowing what version they’d see.
Romano had entered a game in which the Phillies were tied or leading only once since July 19. That appearance came with a six-run lead. He allowed two runs and recorded one out that day, Aug. 18, and the Phillies still kept him around. He had not thrown a pitch in the ninth inning since July 8, when he surrendered a walk-off, inside-the-park home run to San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey.
PATRICK BAILEY
WALK-OFF INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN@SFGIANTS WIN! pic.twitter.com/xwswjv2fLP
— MLB (@MLB) July 9, 2025
Romano’s 8.23 ERA over 49 games is the worst in Phillies history for a pitcher with 30-plus appearances in a season. It’s the worst for a Phillies pitcher with at least 40 innings since Reggie Grabowski’s 9.23 ERA in 1934, when the Phillies still called the bandbox Baker Bowl their home park. No MLB pitcher has appeared in as many games as Romano with a higher ERA since Wade Davis’ 8.65 ERA in 50 games with the 2019 Colorado Rockies.
The only modern Phillies equivalent to Romano’s season was Brad Lidge’s 2009; he lugged a 7.21 ERA over 67 appearances. Lidge, at least, had authored one of the best seasons ever for a Phillies closer the year before.
Romano does not have that track record in Philadelphia. But he remained on the active roster into late August.
(Photo: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)