DUNEDIN, Fla. – José Berríos threw 47 pitches over 2.2 innings in his first outing of the spring and proceeded to add 13 more in the bullpen afterwards. He was pleased with the way he moved his fastball around and though he sat only 91.2 m.p.h., an unseasonably cold afternoon with a high of 12 C held velocities down nearly across the board.
Afterwards, the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander reported that he felt “pretty healthy, pretty strong,” which wasn’t the case last spring he revealed for the first time.
“Honestly, last year, at this time, I had doubt in my mind already,” Berríos said shortly after he exited Monday’s 4-3 Grapefruit League loss to the New York Mets. “Today, I felt like nothing’s on my mind. I’m clear.”
Berríos finished last season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation, which he said he figured out last September originated in “my biceps tendon … that was involving my elbow.” He’d struggled in the season’s back-half, posting a 3.26 earned-run average through his first 17 starts but a 5.63 mark over his final 14 outings, suggesting that’s when the discomfort caught up with him.
Not the case, apparently.
“I threw that way last year all year long,” said Berríos, who at times last season made subtle nods to not feeling great but didn’t make excuses. “I’ve never been in that situation before. I just was dealing with that. Everything was new for me. I never saw myself (not pitching) so that’s why I kept trying to fight and compete with my team.”
Berríos said after undergoing rehab he resumed throwing sometime in November, when a focal point became reworking his kinematic sequence to find more efficient ways to transfer force through specific movements in his body.
Berríos targeted his lower half because “if my lower body works pretty well, my upper body is going to work less,” he explained. “I tried to do that to keep myself fresh longer.”
Regaining some of the velocity he shed last season while better locating his fastball and using his breaking ball more effectively are all expected byproducts, and Berríos felt he checked those boxes, even if, “I missed a few glove-side sinkers with lefties and also with righties.”
“My spin has been doing good and the changeup, too,” he added. “I think it was a good day for me.”
The Blue Jays need there to be plenty of those for him this spring as they sort through an interesting rotation puzzle set to include Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, Trey Yesavage and Berríos, with Eric Lauer pushing for a spot, too, while Shane Bieber works through a slowed buildup.
Exactly how much the elbow impacted Berríos a year ago is tough to measure and manager John Schneider noted that all players struggle physically at different points of each season.
Berríos has been around long enough to know “when he’s good to go and when he’s got to pull back a little bit,” he added. “Pete (Walker, the pitching coach) and myself, we do a good job of staying in touch and if there was ever a point to where we didn’t feel safe or feel good about him throwing, we wouldn’t have. Last year was that in a nutshell for him, just battling physically, not being as sharp or as effective as he would have hoped. But we felt good every time he was out there.”
First time out in 2026, Berríos said he feels that way, too, and he threw 60 total pitches, more than usual for a first outing, because he’s following his planned build-up for the World Baseball Classic, even though he’s ineligible to pitch for Puerto Rico in the first round because he was declined insurance.
He’s hoping to pitch in the quarter-finals if his team gets there – Puerto Rico hosts Pool A with Canada, Cuba, Colombia and Panama – but “it’s not 100 per cent yet,” he’ll be able to go.
“They said they have to see me and evaluate me,” he continued. “If I’m healthy, then they will insure me.”
Monday was a step in that direction.
OKAMOTO GOES DEEP: Down 1-2 in the count to Clay Holmes, Kazuma Okamoto stayed on a curveball diving low and away, caught the ball a little out in front and sent it 431 feet off the batter’s eye in centre field for his first home run of the spring.
Met by big smiles and high-fives in the dugout afterwards, “made me want to hit more for the team,” he said.
“I’m not necessarily worried about the results, really,” Okamoto added through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “It’s trying to put the ball and play and hit the ball hard. It somehow went out today, so I’m glad.”
The homer came in the first of two at-bats Monday, the other a strikeout, in five innings of work, which included a clean throw across the diamond from deep behind third base on Hayden Senger’s grounder in the fourth.
Okamoto, who leaves camp later this week to join Japan for the World Baseball Classic, has some “adjustability in his swing” that gives him a chance to do different things at the plate, said manager John Schneider.
“He fits our profile so I think it’s a great add for us because we’re not asking him to do anything he hasn’t already done,” he said. “There’s definitely some power, there’s definitely some ability to put the ball in play, too. As he gets used to seeing pitchers and gets used of their stuff a little bit, that’ll be on full display. He’s done a really, really good job of taking things in, taking in information and really has been up to speed with everything.”
UPCOMING STARTERS: The Blue Jays are TBD on the mound for Tuesday when John Schneider said a minor-leaguer is expected to start versus the New York Yankees. Cody Ponce pitches on Wednesday followed by Kevin Gausman on Thursday, Eric Lauer on Friday and Dylan Cease and Jose Berríos handling duties on a split-squad Saturday. … Shane Bieber is still “throwing consistently feeling good,” but there’s “nothing definitive right now” on when he’ll progress to throwing off the mound.