Philadelphia Phillies: JoJo Romero might need some extra AAA work

Initially viewed as a major piece to the Philadelphia Phillies 2021 bullpen, JoJo Romero hasn’t exactly had the start we were all envisioning thus far. He’s allowed seven runs through just 9.0 innings of work, and his WHIP sits at an eye-popping 1.78.

While it’s obviously still very early into the season – too early to make any sort of grand conclusion’s regarding JoJo’s overall ability – the question still has to be asked, does he really belong on the Major League roster at the moment?

Outside of Romero’s inability to consistently get outs, his average velocity has noticeably dropped off. His fastball was reaching as high as 97-98 MPH during his brief stint with the team last year, it’s now down around the 94-95 MPH range. Not only is that a concerning dip in velocity so early into his MLB career, but it’s also drastically reduced his effectiveness on the mound.

In a league that’s increasingly prioritizing velocity out of the bullpen, you want as many of your relief arms flirting with triple-digits on the radar gun as humanly possible.

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Philadelphia Phillies LHP JoJo Romero might not be ready for the big leagues quite yet.

While the Phillies are rather short on available bullpen arms at the moment, Romero is the type of player who could seriously benefit from a trip back down to the Minor Leagues. With the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs’ regular season just recently starting back up, there’s a pretty obvious pathway to playing time if the Phils do go that route.

While one could make the argument that the Philadelphia Phillies need Romero on the roster due to his lefty presence, it appears the team has begun experimenting with using Matt Moore as a reliever, which solves that problem.

Additionally, Archie Bradley is (hopefully) returning from the injured list sometime in the near future, which gives Joe Girardi another more reliable high-leverage arm to use as opposed to JoJo.

By no means am I “punting” on JoJo and his overall development/potential, but I do think it’s worth pointing out that sending him out there to get rocked once every third night isn’t really helping him get better at the moment. As much as we all want JoJo to succeed, letting him get some real developmental work down in AAA is likely what’s best for him (and the Phillies) at the moment.