BUFFALO—Ricky Romero says it’s on him now.

His struggle is his problem. So he’s throwing out all the mechanical adjustments the Toronto Blue Jays have made to his delivery this season and going back to pitching as he always has. If he fails now, it will be on his terms.

“It’s my career, man,” the embattled left-hander told the Star on Tuesday. “Enough with the mechanical stuff.”

The Jays’ one-time all-star has endured a fall from grace in little more than a year, plummeting from opening-day ace to the club’s most highly paid minor-leaguer.

His latest setback came Saturday when he cleared outright waivers — meaning any team could have had him for nothing — and was removed from the Jays’ 40-man roster.

The 28-year-old L.A. native, still owed $24 million through 2015 (including the buyout of a 2016 club option), has been hardened by his recent trials. He says he’s learned the harsh realities of professional baseball.

“But it’s no hard feelings. It’s a business. That’s the way you got to approach it. You’ve got to . . . take care of yourself because nobody else is going to take care of you.”

After a disastrous 2012, in which he was the worst starting pitcher in the majors by just about every statistical measure, Romero welcomed various tweaks to his pitching style, hoping they would help him again become the pitcher who made the top 10 in Cy Young voting just two seasons ago. He failed to make the Jays out of spring training and spent a month in Florida reconstructing his delivery with minor-league pitching instructor Dane Johnson in the hopes of correcting his wayward command.

But all that’s abandoned now. “I’m just doing what got me to the big leagues,” he said inside the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons clubhouse at Coca-Cola Field. “It’s tough to change someone when you’ve done it for such a long time, so I just decided to go back to my old self. In the end it’s what I feel comfortable with, not what someone else feels comfortable with.”

Romero said his problems are mental, not physical. Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said he is entirely okay with Romero setting out on his own agenda.

“He has to do what he feels comfortable with,” Anthopoulos said, adding that if there were an easy fix for what ails their once-prized pitcher, the Jays would have already put it in place. “There’s a lot of trial and error with a lot of this stuff.”

The Jays have no long-term plan for Romero. They’re hoping he makes progress each outing.

Romero will make his next start for Buffalo on Thursday. Though he currently holds an 11.84 ERA in five Triple-A starts, he hasn’t been all bad. He allowed five runs in six innings his last time on the mound, but didn’t walk anybody — the biggest positive sign. The start before that was a nightmare: He gave up eight earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning. Five days earlier, he pitched five mostly-solid innings. He gave up one run on four hits and a walk, and carried a 7-1 lead into the sixth inning — only to blow it all by walking the first four batters he faced in the sixth. “I’m very curious to see how he does this next start,” Anthopoulos said.

Romero said he’s still focusing on finishing his pitches — ensuring that he follows through and doesn’t fall off as he releases the ball.

“I think at times I felt really robotic out there,” he said, about the changes he made to his delivery. “This was never mechanical.”

Romero said that in the past, he had concerned himself too much with pleasing others. “I think anyone that does a job, when someone’s telling you what to do, if you don’t feel comfortable with it, you kind of feel out of whack, you feel different,” he said. “It’s nothing against anyone or anything. I see their side of it. Everyone’s trying to help me. But in the end, it’s just simplifying it.”

It’s clear his relationship with the Jays has changed.

“When you’re struggling, you’re searching and you’re willing to listen to anyone and kind of search for those answers,” he said. “You’ve got to look out for yourself. People can only give you so much info. In the end, I’m a grown man and I’ve got to take responsibility in that sense.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

He also referred to now having the “right people behind me” and doing “research as far as who I choose to be on my team,” but refused to elaborate what or who he meant.

Amid his struggles, Romero, has been comforted by a supportive family. He doesn’t wallow away from the field. “Baseball is never going to define me as a person,” he says.

“I know I will overcome this, without a doubt. I have confidence in myself and so does my family, the people that love me, and that’s all that matters.”