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The trials and tribulations continued to mount yesterday for Toronto Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero. The lefty was assigned to pitch at the Blue Jays’ minor league camp in an attempt to tinker with his mechanics against minor league hitters. The results were not pretty and do not bode well for Romero nor the Blue Jays. Romero surrendered four earned runs on five hits including five walks in 2.1 innings of work. Romero was pulled in the middle of an at bat never striking out a batter during the outing and did I mention it was against minor league hitters?
Romero is scheduled to pitch six innings on Tuesday in Grapefruit League action which presumably will be the most important and telling start of his spring. There has been debate all spring whether Romero deserved the 5th starter role after a disastrous 2012 season. Romero has done absolutely nothing to quash those debates all spring.
It is quite concerning that Romero would be tinkering and tweaking his mechanics less than two weeks away from the team moving north for the start of the season. It appears the Blue Jays have been tight lipped about the entire ordeal not to frazzle the psyche of Romero any further who seems to have lost all confidence in himself and his stuff.
As I author this post, the Blue Jays insurance policy in the likes of J.A Happ is twirling a scoreless one-hit shutout against the Boston Red Sox in the fourth inning.
Clayton Richer covers the Toronto Blue Jays for Rant Sports. Follow and interact with him on Twitter at @MLBHotCorner.
