{"id":617857,"date":"2026-03-11T03:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T03:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/617857\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T03:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T03:46:17","slug":"blue-jays-could-make-one-final-huge-trade-before-opening-day-in-bullpen-splash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/617857\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Could Make One Final Huge Trade Before Opening Day in Bullpen Splash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays went into the offseason looking to make some real upgrades<\/a> following their first taste of World Series glory<\/a> in more than three decades and coming so close to winning it all.<\/p>\n

General manager Ross Atkins has been relentless<\/a> with improvements to the roster, spending hundreds of millions on the pitching staff to bolster both the starting rotation<\/a> and the bullpen. Toronto does look to be in a better spot here than they were a year ago, but you can never have enough pitching<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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It would not be a shock to see Atkins make one more move before Opening Day<\/a>, and it feels like this Blue Jays bullpen could use another southpaw in what is a very righty-heavy unit as things currently stand.<\/p>\n

Given they have been linked several times throughout<\/a> the offseason, perhaps Atkins could look to swing a deal with the rebuilding St. Louis Cardinals to bring veteran left-hander JoJo Romero<\/a> to Toronto.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays Could Still Swing Deal for JoJo Romero with Cardinals\"JoJo<\/p>\n

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher JoJo Romero | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

If there’s one weakness Toronto still has<\/a> — and an area every team should always be looking to add more to — it’s the bullpen<\/a>, and the unit as things currently stands has significantly more right-handed<\/a> help than left.<\/p>\n

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Romero is coming off the best season of his career and is on a St. Louis team which has no real chance to win in 2026. On top of that, the 29-year-old is a free agent after this season, making him the most expendable asset possible as a rental relief pitcher on a non-contender.<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, the Cardinals are going to deal Romero away, it’s just a matter of when and to who. If the Blue Jays don’t stay on top of this, the left-hander could wind up with one of Toronto’s reliever-needy rivals who are trying to knock them off the pedestal in the American League.<\/p>\n

Before that happens, Atkins had better act fast and make the move if a package can come together.<\/p>\n

What Romero Could Cost Blue Jays in Trade\"JoJo<\/p>\n

St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher JoJo Romero | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

On one hand, St. Louis does not have a whole lot of leverage given that they on paper should want to trade Romero to a contending team and have just one more year of control. On the other, numerous teams want him and the Cardinals certainly don’t have to make a move.<\/p>\n

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Pitching to a 2.07 ERA and 1.7 bWAR over 61 innings in 2025, Romero is as coveted an asset still available on the market, and teams are certainly willing to part with prospects<\/a>. It’s unlikely that he would cost any sort of top level guy<\/a>, and if that’s the asking price Toronto should back off.<\/p>\n

A package headlined a couple of mid-level prospects could make a whole lot of sense here and wind up being fair compensation to secure a lefty boost in the bullpen. Whether or not Atkins can pull it off or not remains to be seen, however he certainly should be on the phone and calling.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on www.si.com\/mlb\/bluejays\/onsi as Blue Jays Could Make One Final Huge Trade Before Opening Day in Bullpen Splash<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays went into the offseason looking to make some real upgrades following their first taste…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,8534,4,3633,673,67,4311,4310,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-617857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-jojo-romero","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-ross-atkins","13":"tag-st-louis","14":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","15":"tag-stlouis","16":"tag-stlouiscardinals","17":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116208496715715923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}