Failed Angels closer Jordan Romano joins new team known to ruin pitchers

The odds were stacked against former Los Angeles Angels' closer of Jordan Romano. After spending the better part of four seasons as one of the best relievers in Major League Baseball, the previous two seasons were far less kind to Romano. Many even wondered if he was on his way out of the league. Instead, the Angels gave him a shot, and things went sideways in short order.

After a promising start to 2026, Romano flamed out with LA in a hurry. During his last five appearances with the Angels, he ended up with a combined 27.00 ERA. While it appears that he was unlucky during that stretch, baseball is a results-oriented business, and Romano just wasn't getting it done. With his recent track record, the Angels pulled the plug and DFA'd Romano at the end of April.

There was a very real chance that Romano's struggles and history of injuries would keep any team from giving him another shot this year. One team, however, decided to take a flier and signed him to a minor league deal. The problem for Romano is that the team is the Colorado Rockies, which is where pitchers go to die.

Jordan Romano signed with the Rockies & it feels like his last chance

For the uninitiated, Colorado's history of chewing up and spitting out pitchers is long and well-documented. When you are pitching roughly half of your games at altitude at Coors Field, where your pitches don't have anywhere near the same movement, and balls fly out of the ballpark, that is not a recipe for success on the mound.

The fact that Romano ended up signing with the Rockies anyway is pretty telling. The odds that he was going to find a contract with any team that resembles a contender were near zero. Settling for a minor-league deal with the perennially-rebuilding Rockies speaks for itself.

That said, this is also an opportunity for Romano. Colorado is one of those teams who are often poached by other clubs, including arms that have encouraging peripherals and numbers away from Coors Field.

If Romano can perform at a decent level, better teams may try to take a shot on him as soon as the trade deadline this year. Unfortunately, if he struggles, it looks like this could be close to the end of the line.

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