{"id":531434,"date":"2026-03-18T20:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531434\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:09:08","slug":"jose-berrios-diagnosed-with-stress-fracture-in-elbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531434\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos Diagnosed With Stress Fracture In Elbow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Jays righty Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos<\/a> has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right elbow and will not be ready for Opening Day, manager John Schneider announced to the team\u2019s beat (via Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet<\/a>). Berr\u00edos is somewhat remarkably pain- and symptom-free. The current hope is that after a bit of down time, he\u2019ll be able to pitch through the issue. It\u2019s not clear exactly how long that\u2019ll be, but for now he\u2019ll take a few days off from throwing altogether.<\/p>\n

Berr\u00edos had been pitching throughout the spring and only learned of a possible issue in his elbow when he was taking his physical prior to joining Puerto Rico\u2019s team for the World Baseball Classic. An MRI conducted as part of that exam revealed inflammation in his elbow, which caught Berr\u00edos by surprise, as he said that he had not experienced any discomfort. Still, the inflammation scuttled his hopes of pitching for Puerto Rico and prompted the Jays to schedule a visit with Dr. Keith Meister to further evaluate the veteran righty\u2019s elbow.<\/p>\n

Entering the fifth season of a seven-year, $131MM contract, Berr\u00edos had been hoping for a rebound effort. He\u2019s coming off one of his weaker seasons but was still plenty serviceable last year. In 166 innings, he posted a 4.17 ERA, 19.8% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. The right-hander\u2019s 93 mph average four-seamer was a career-low, and his 92.2 mph average sinker was the second-lowest of his career. That walk rate, while solid, was the second-highest of his career in a full season and a notable step up from the 6.7% he\u2019d logged from 2017-24.<\/p>\n

A trip to the injured list is a rarity for Berr\u00edos. He\u2019s been a starter every year of his major league career \u2014 one of the most durable and consistent of the past decade. Dating back to 2018, he leads Major League Baseball in both games started (234) and innings pitched (1367 2\/3). Berr\u00edos started a full slate of 12 games during the shortened 2020 season and has started 30 or more games in each other season dating back to 2018.<\/p>\n

The Jays still owe Berr\u00edos $66MM over the next three seasons. He can opt out of the final two years of his contract following the 2026 campaign, but based on last year\u2019s relative down performance, that looked like a long shot even before news of this elbow issue popped up.<\/p>\n

Berr\u00edos finds himself in something of an odd spot with the Jays, though perhaps this injury will help sort things out organically. Toronto signed Dylan Cease<\/a>, Max Scherzer<\/a> and Cody Ponce<\/a> in free agency this offseason. Rookie Trey Yesavage<\/a> is also locked into a rotation spot after a dominant late-season debut and postseason run. The Blue Jays have Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Shane Bieber<\/a>, Cease, Yesavage, Ponce, Scherzer, Berr\u00edos and Eric Lauer<\/a> on the roster, giving them eight viable starting pitchers for five spots.<\/p>\n

Bieber is opening the season on the injured list due to some forearm fatigue. Berr\u00edos will join him there for an undetermined period of time. If neither misses much time, the Jays could soon have some tough decisions to make with regard to eight veteran starting pitchers \u2014 assuming the other six remain healthy. Lauer has voiced a desire to pitch out of the rotation \u2014 he\u2019s a free agent next winter, after all \u2014 but said he\u2019ll pitch in whatever role he\u2019s asked. There\u2019s been some trade speculation surrounding him, but with two starters already on the shelf, Toronto may not be keen on further thinning the staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Jays righty Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right elbow and will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[114657,379,99],"class_list":["post-531434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-john-schneider","tag-jose-berrios","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}