{"id":325586,"date":"2025-12-03T19:35:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325586\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T19:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:35:20","slug":"blue-jays-open-to-trading-jose-berrios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325586\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Open To Trading Jose Berrios"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Jays\u2019 early signings of Dylan Cease<\/a> and KBO returnee Cody Ponce<\/a> have deepened a rotation that already included Trey Yesavage<\/a>, Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Shane Bieber<\/a> and Jose Berrios<\/a>. Lefty Eric Lauer<\/a> and righty Yariel Rodriguez<\/a> give Toronto a pair of quality swing options, too, and the Jays still have Bowden Francis<\/a> and former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann<\/a> (who should be recovered from 2024 Tommy John surgery) in the upper minors as well.<\/p>\n

The magnitude of Ponce\u2019s three-year, $30MM contract<\/a> presumably puts him squarely into the rotation. Barring a move to a six-man rotation or a spring injury, Toronto will have more starters than rotation places available. Injuries can turn a \u201csurplus\u201d into a deficiency pretty quickly, particularly when it comes to pitchers, but the Jays are willing to trade Berrios, Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to frame this as the Jays adding enough depth that they\u2019re now willing to deal Berrios. That\u2019d be the charitable (to Berrios) way of shaping things. The other and perhaps more likely angle is simply that Toronto wasn\u2019t enamored with Berrios continuing as its fourth starter and has acted decisively with a pair of additions pushing the veteran righty down the depth chart.<\/p>\n

Berrios, 32 next May, has been an iron man for the Jays and Twins throughout his big league tenure. He\u2019s started at least 30 games every year since 2018, with the exception of the shortened 2020 season, when he started a full slate of 12 games. No pitcher has started more games (234) or totaled more innings (1367 1\/3) than Berrios in that span of eight years.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Berrios has generally been an above-average starter. He\u2019s logged a 3.94 ERA, set down 22.6% of his opponents on strikes and only walked 6.8% of the batters he\u2019s faced. Few starters have been this reliable for this long.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, Berrios\u2019 more recent seasons have seen him trend in the wrong direction. After punching out 23.7% of his opponents from 2018-23, he\u2019s dropped to 19.6% over the past two seasons. Add in a 19.8% strikeout rate in 2022, and Berrios has now been under 20% in that regard in three of the past four years. League average in that time has been about 22.5%. Berrios has spent much of his career working with plus command, but this past season\u2019s 8% walk rate \u2014 while still slightly better than the 8.4% league average \u2014 was up considerably from the 6.3% mark he posted across four prior seasons.<\/p>\n

The worrying trends don\u2019t stop there. Berrios\u2019 93 mph average four-seamer in 2025 was the lowest of his career, while the 92.2 mph average on his sinker was his second-lowest (leading only the 92.1 mph he averaged back in 2019). He also surrendered the highest average exit velocity (90.3 mph) and barrel rate (11.3%) of his career. His opponents\u2019 42.5% hard-hit rate was the second-highest mark in his MLB run. Berrios has only yielded a hard-hit rate north of 40% in three of his 10 major league seasons. All three have come within the past four years. Unsurprisingly, given the dips in velocity, command and whiffs, Berrios has become more homer-prone; after surrendering an average of 1.17 homers per nine frames from 2017-23, he\u2019s up to 1.43 since Opening Day 2024.<\/p>\n

None of this necessarily makes Berrios a\u00a0bad pitcher. He\u2019s an ultra-durable source of reliable, if unspectacular innings. However, coming off a down season that ended with what was incredibly the first IL stint of his big league career (elbow inflammation), would Berrios match the remaining three years and $66MM on his contract? He\u2019d be hard-pressed to do so \u2014 certainly once factoring in the opt-out provision he has following the 2026 campaign and the escalators that could push his remaining guarantee from $66MM to $70MM.<\/p>\n

Currently, Berrios is guaranteed $24MM in both 2027 and 2028. Both figures would rise by $1MM if the right-hander pitches a combined 300 innings in 2025-26 and another $1MM if he gets to a combined 350 innings. With 166 frames under his belt in 2025, he\u2019d only need 134 innings in 2026 to secure an additional $2MM and a tougher but plausible 184 innings to tack on yet another $1MM per season. Given his durability, it\u2019s likely that Berrios will at least be promised at least $50MM over two seasons when weighing his opt-out opportunity next winter \u2014 and possibly two years and $52MM.<\/p>\n

All of that coalesces to make Berrios a difficult player to trade. He\u2019ll pitch next year at 32, so it\u2019s hardly out of the question that he rediscovers some of his waning ability to miss bats and\/or limit walks and boosts his profile a bit. In that instance, however, Berrios might very well opt out of the two years left on his contract beyond the 2026 season. On the other hand, if the veteran righty continues to see his strikeouts dip and\/or see his walks creep further north, he could be more of an innings-eating fifth starter who\u2019s trending down and owed $24-26MM in both his age-33 and age-34 campaigns.<\/p>\n

Essentially, any team trading for Berrios would probably do so with the hope that he\u2019d rebound closer to his 2021-23 form \u2014 at which point he\u2019d likely opt out. But to acquire him, they\u2019d also have to take on the downside of Berrios maintaining his recent status quo or even slipping further, thus making that $48-52MM owed to him in 2027-28 wholly unappealing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019d be a surprise if the Jays were to find an interested team that was willing to both take on the entirety of Berrios\u2019 remaining contract (to say nothing of doing so and surrendering young talent). In all likelihood, the Jays would need to include at least some cash or take back another contract of some note at a different position. That said, starting pitching is always in demand, and there are always teams looking for creative ways to swap weighty contracts that might better fit their current roster or payroll objectives.<\/p>\n

One other fascinating wrinkle to consider: Berrios ended the 2025 season with 9.044 years of major league service time. That places him 128 days shy of 10 years. With MLB Opening Day set for March 25 and the trade deadline set to fall on Friday, July 31, Berrios would reach 10 years of service the day before next summer\u2019s deadline. At that point, he\u2019d acquire 10-and-5 rights \u2014 10 years of MLB service, including the past five with the same team \u2014 thereby granting him full veto power over any trade scenarios. Currently, Berrios can block trades to a slate of eight teams.<\/p>\n

Toronto can still carry Berrios into the 2026 season and enjoy the depth he provides. In all likelihood, injuries are going to thin out the top end of the current rotation options. That\u2019s just reality for any big league club in today\u2019s game. But the Jays have viable rotation alternatives, and the looming realization of Berrios\u2019 10-and-5 rights mean that trading him next winter will be even more complicated if he chooses to forgo his opt-out. There\u2019d also be quite a bit of pressure to try to push a deal across the finish line in late July in the event that the Jays are intent on dealing him this summer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a complicated scenario, to say the least. Berrios\u2019 contract is underwater but not an albatross. He\u2019s a durable source of steady innings but no longer a borderline All-Star. The Jays can try to trade him this winter or during the season, but they\u2019ll have not only the \u201cclock\u201d of the trade deadline but also the artificial clock of Berrios\u2019 forthcoming full no-trade rights. Moving Berrios now would free up some more space for a run at re-signing Bo Bichette<\/a> or trying to lure Kyle Tucker<\/a> to Toronto, though the Jays would probably need to take on some other costs in order to get a deal done. It all makes for a fascinating thread to follow ahead of next week\u2019s Winter Meetings, where convoluted trade packages and high-profile changes of scenery are the norm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays\u2019 early signings of Dylan Cease and KBO returnee Cody Ponce have deepened a rotation that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,182825,153340,6108,21594,16084,16066,591,168716,33136,85,82337,182826],"class_list":{"0":"post-325586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bowden-francis","11":"tag-cody-ponce","12":"tag-dylan-cease","13":"tag-eric-lauer","14":"tag-jose-berrios","15":"tag-kevin-gausman","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-ricky-tiedemann","18":"tag-shane-bieber","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-trey-yesavage","21":"tag-yariel-rodriguez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}