Wilner: What to do with Romero?

Well, I wouldn’t go as far as Sheriff McClelland would go…

The question that has been asked most of the summer is: What do the Blue Jays do with Ricky Romero?

Sending him down to the minors to work out the kinks is no longer an option, since their seasons end on Labour Day.

Shutting him down for the rest of the season doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do, either. First of all, I don’t think it’s all that easy to work your way out of problems while on the bench, and is THIS the start-over which you want Romero to spend all winter stewing?

The answer, as far as I’m concerned, is to keep handing him the ball every fifth or sixth day and letting him try to get the job done. It’s not as though his poor performances are costing his team a shot at a post-season berth. That ship has long since sailed, and you have to maintain the hope that he can somehow pull out of it and put two or three good starts together as the season winds down to prove to both himself and his team that he can still do it.

If he keeps getting roughed up then he keeps getting roughed up. Good pitchers have had terrible seasons before and you hope that he makes his last start of the year, emerges healthy, has a good cry (literally or figuratively), gets away from everything for a while and then gets to work on 2013. But the time for him to do that isn’t while his teammates are still playing.