FORT MYERS, Fla. -- This isn't one of those Spring Training camps where José Berríos comes in with the hope of remaking a pitch or changing up his usage. He's no longer a young pitcher searching for what makes him tick on a mound; he's now a veteran looking to build on the lessons of 115 big league starts.
During the past four seasons of Berríos' career, he's had flashes of the greatness that Twins fans hoped to see throughout his rise as a top prospect in the system. He's also had stretches of inconsistency and some inability to sustain his performance late into the season.
This year, he hopes, will finally bring that next step.
"That's what I was thinking about a few days ago -- I came to the ballpark by myself, because we hadn't started yet, and I said, 'This year's different for me,'" Berríos said before the start of camp. "I've got 115 outings to build on. So I've got that in my pocket to know who I am and where we're going. I feel better, I feel a little bit more relaxed, and now I know a little more of what I have to do to get it to the next level."
Throughout his four full seasons as a Major League pitcher, Berríos remained a work in progress in many ways, despite making two Opening Day starts and posting a 3.82 ERA in that span while eclipsing 200 strikeouts and 200 innings once apiece. In that time, Berríos has worked to make his mechanics more efficient, to add depth and consistency to his changeup and to tweak the shape of his curveball.
When he took the mound for his first start of this spring in Wednesday's 14-6 loss to the Red Sox, Berríos said he approached things like a true game situation -- and gave the Twins exactly what they'd hope to see when the results actually start to matter. Though Kiké Hernández doubled to lead off the game, Berríos induced a double play and struck out three of the next four batters to finish off a scoreless two-inning debut.
"I’m just pitching like game situations," Berríos said. "The first day, I want to feel like myself on the mound again."
Berríos' offseason preparation with his trainer at home in Puerto Rico has changed, he said. In the past, he was known for his rigorous workout schedule on the beach -- even pushing cars -- but said that he's now focused on "more quality than quantity," with the knowledge that he's preparing to be his best self during the regular season, not necessarily in Spring Training.
He's looking the part early in camp, anyway.
"He's really getting comfortable with his changeup," pitching coach Wes Johnson said. "He's really understanding that he's got a weapon in his breaking ball and how to use it. Not just throwing it for a strike and throwing it off the plate, but how to move it around to left- and right-handed hitters, and you started seeing that late in the year last year. So there's a lot to get excited about with him. We've just got to continue to build on that."
Berríos had an up-and-down 2020 season, owning a 5.92 ERA through five starts, before allowing just one hit in six innings against Milwaukee on Aug. 20, then yielding just two hits in a five-inning gem against the Astros in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series.
It also helps that Berríos no longer has the pressure of being the No. 1 starter for this Twins team after the emergence of Kenta Maeda as a bona fide ace and the runner-up in AL Cy Young Award voting last season. Minnesota handed Maeda the Game 1 start in the postseason, and Berríos, ambitious as he is, accepted it as the right call.
"We are a team," Berríos said. "That's the right decision [manager] Rocco [Baldelli] made to try to win the ballgame. We used obviously Maeda, he’s pitching well last year, he helped our team a lot. So in that situation, the only thing you want is just to win, no matter what you have to do to do it, we want to win."
But the form that Berríos found in that modified second half does have both the right-hander and his coaches excited for what could come if he now just maintains the consistency with his improved changeup and breaking ball, and combines it with improved stamina over the course of a season. Perhaps there's a two-headed monster to be unlocked atop Minnesota's rotation if Berríos can finally make things click.
"José's got that look in his eye," Johnson said. "I think he's on a mission. We'll see. He's got to go out and do it, and he's not scared to go out and try. I thought what you were seeing towards the end of last year was hopefully what we're going to be able to carry over."
"He wants to take the next step in his career from a really good Major League pitcher to maybe even something else, which is very exciting," Baldelli said. "I think he has all the ability and all the intangibles to do that."