It's time for the Jays to trade Ricky Romero. Well, not now, because we're past the non-waiver trade deadline. But at the end of the season, the Jays should ship him out, ideally for another young starter.
Ricky's strikeout-to-walk rate in the past two years has been a hair over 2:1. That's solid, but Ricky has been gaining a reputation as one of the AL's elite. This season, he's had an ERA under 3 much of the time and has put up a lot of innings. Yet it's largely thanks to a low hit rate: his BABIP this year is an outrageous .265. Regression would seem to be in the cards for his future. He's a 3.50-4.00 ERA pitcher, not a 2.98 ERA man. He's a lot closer to Ted Lilly than, say, Clayton Kershaw.
What's more, Romero has put on a lot of mileage in the last couple years. There's nothing to suggest that he's about to get injured, but big innings totals have a way of doing that.
I like Romero - he's been a career Jay and it's nice to see him succeed after being labelled as a mistake in the draft. I'm just saying: if the Jays can get the right offer for him, they shouldn't be afraid to sell high. A return, for example, similar to the one they got for Shawn Marcum. I'm not sure they need more position players, which of course narrows your possibilities. They'd need a trading partner who wants to do more of a challenge trade.
