Improved slider command helping to drive Romano's 2022 success with Blue Jays

Brad Lidge joins Blair and Barker to discuss Toronto Blue Jays closing pitcher Jordan Romano and analyze what allows him to be so effective as a closer under interim manager John Schneider.

Over the course of the 2022 season, the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen has been a consistent source of consternation for the team and its fanbase.

While the club’s relievers have had a rocky year, Jordan Romano has seemed like a paragon of consistency. The Canadian closer hasn’t been perfect, but his current production closely matches his 2021 output

Metric

2021

2022

ERA

2.14

2.35

FIP

3.15

3.21

Shutdowns

27

28

Meltdowns

5

6

Those numbers could lead you to believe that Romano’s season is ticking along like clockwork. While the results are steady, the 29-year-old has been evolving as the campaign has continued.

He’s been especially effective recently, allowing just three earned runs in 18 innings since the beginning of July. While putting together a stretch of 1.50 ERA ball isn’t particularly rare for a high-leverage reliever, the way Romano has done so is interesting.

Throughout his career, the right-hander has been known as a pitcher whose raw stuff superseded his command, but he has flipped the script in the last two months with just one unintentional walk. Taking out a pair of IBB’s, his walk rate (1.5%) during this 17-game span is the lowest we’ve ever seen from him over a similar stretch of games.

The way he’s managed that is unexpected. Last time he completely cut out walks — at the end of last season — he did by ratcheting up his fastball rate over 75 percent and pounding the zone. 

That’s an intuitive strategy for a power pitcher, but in 2022 he’s harnessing his stuff with a different tactic by throwing more and more sliders.

Romano has never finished a month with a slider rate as high as the one he has going in August (61.8%), but he’s not giving away any free passes. That’s the result of two phenomena that are undoubtedly related.

The first is that he is painting the corners with the breaking ball like never before. His edge percentage on the offering is the highest it’s ever been, a touch above his April total when his BB/9 was 1.59.

The second is a jump in his chase rate on the slider. 

These trends didn’t correlate in April, but Romano was throwing sliders just 39.4% of the time back then. Now he’s constantly hitting the corners with the pitch then forcing hitters out of the zone.

An at-bat the closer had against Aaron Judge on August 17 is an excellent example of this interplay.

He started the probable MVP out with a front door slider that just caught the corner.

Later in the at-bat — including the very next pitch — Romano put two sliders well outside the zone that Judge offered at:

#1:

#2

While it’s impossible to know for certain whether Judge would’ve swung for those pitches if the first one had been different, it seems the slugger had to honour Romano’s ability to command his slider.

That top-notch command was also on display in his last outing on Wednesday. In a tough extra-innings situation, Romano defended a one-run lead with a slider-heavy barrage of pitches that never ventured towards the middle of the plate.

The combination of Romano’s intense demeanor, elite velocity, and past results can create the impression that he simply rears back and attempts to blow opponents away with minimal regard for where the ball is going. At times, that closer archetype has fit him rather well. 

While his big-time fastball remains a crucial ingredient to his success, right now he seems to be thriving on command — especially when it comes to his hard-breaking slider. Romano is never going to be confused with a finesse pitcher, but right now he’s doing some of the things that make guys who don’t have his raw talent successful.

For now, this is a noteworthy trend driving a successful stretch. If it becomes something he can replicate over a longer period of time it would raise his ceiling and make him even less fun to face.

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