Jordan Romano Finds New Team After Being Dumped By Angels
Colorado has agreed to a minor league contract with the veteran right-hander, who was released by the Los Angeles Angels on April 27 after allowing nine earned runs across eight innings.
The Rockies are not rushing Romano into game action.
He will first report to the organization's performance lab in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Colorado's pitching development staff will work on his mechanics and pitch mix before assigning him to a minor league affiliate.
Jordan Romano to sign a minor-league deal with the Rockies, per @harding_at_mlb.
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) May 6, 2026
The Angels will continue paying the remainder of Romano's $2 million salary, with the Rockies responsible only for the prorated league minimum based on whatever time Romano spends on their roster.
Romano's 2026 campaign started promisingly enough.
He was pushed into the closer role by season-opening injuries to Robert Stephenson and Kirby Yates, plus Ben Joyce's ongoing recovery from shoulder surgery, and reeled off six straight scoreless appearances with four saves to open the year.
A trip to Yankee Stadium ended everything.
Romano allowed five runs while retiring just one of nine opponents across two outings in the Bronx, took two losses, blew two saves, and was designated for assignment days later.
His final ERA with the Angels was 10.13.
What the Rockies Are Evaluating
The underlying numbers give Colorado something to work with even amid the surface-level disaster.
Romano still struck out 12 batters in his 11 appearances, a rate that suggests the swing-and-miss capability that made him one of the best closers in baseball from 2021 through 2023 has not entirely evaporated.
The problem is velocity.
His four-seamer averaged 94.5 mph with the Angels, down significantly from the 97 to 98 mph he sat during his peak Blue Jays years when he saved 36 games in back-to-back All-Star seasons.
The decline is not a new development.
I need to know what kind of blackmail Jordan Romano has on MLB that he keeps getting high leverage opportunities.
— Chris Castellani (@Castellani2014) April 16, 2026
His ERA since the beginning of 2024 is 7.88
That’s 72 appearances. That’s a massive sample size for a reliever. pic.twitter.com/OqVr09vtNv
Romano had arthroscopic elbow surgery in 2024, dealt with finger inflammation and numbness that cut short his 2025 season with the Phillies, and has now posted ugly ERA numbers in back-to-back campaigns despite still generating strikeouts at a reasonable rate.
The lab assignment in Scottsdale is the Rockies' way of saying they believe there is a mechanical or pitch-mix explanation for the velocity loss rather than accepting that the arm simply has nothing left.
If they find something, Colorado gets a useful bullpen piece for almost nothing.
Photo Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images
