TORONTO -- José Berríos is stuck in a season of unfortunate firsts, and that season might have just ended prematurely.
Berríos was placed on the IL for the first time in his 10-year MLB career Thursday with right elbow inflammation, something he’s been “dealing with for a while” in a difficult season. This comes one day after Berríos made his first relief appearance since 2017, ending a remarkable run of consecutive starts.
It’s important that the past couple of months don’t cloud how impressive Berríos has been throughout his career. He’s been baseball’s safest bet for 32 starts and an ERA somewhere in the range of 3.75 each season, over and over again. For the first time, though, we’ve watched "La Makina" slow down. Even in an ugly 2022 season, which was the ultimate outlier for Berríos, there weren’t warning signs like these.
Berríos’ velocity is down about 1.0 mph across the board, which has been more pronounced lately, and he’d been struggling to miss bats before his recent demotion to the bullpen. It’s easy to draw a line between the results and this elbow issue, especially for a pitcher who’s logged 1,571 2/3 innings.
“We’ll see what the MRI says, but it’s probably connected somehow with the stuff,” manager John Schneider said. “Ideally, we’re not trying to put José in the bullpen. If his stuff is where it was in years past, we’re probably not having that conversation. How it all correlates, we’ll see what the MRI says, but he was grinding through it, for sure.”
The MRI revealed no structural damage, which is encouraging, but Berríos is still receiving a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister to confirm.
Thursday’s news also put Schneider in an uncomfortable spot. Berríos spent some brief time on the IL in 2013 and ‘14 as a prospect coming up in the Twins’ Minor League system, but Schneider is now the only MLB manager to ever place the right-hander on the IL.
“Awkward,” Schneider said, “because it’s the first time, kind of like him pitching out of the ‘pen. He was good with the conversation. He just wants to figure out what’s going on. It’s been a weird second half for him. The conversation wasn’t tough by any means in the back-and-forth with him. He understood it, but it’s awkward because he’s been so consistent.”
A rotation that’s been so sturdy is suddenly showing its cracks. Chris Bassitt is already on the IL with lower back inflammation, and while the Blue Jays are optimistic that a recent cortisone shot will help the veteran right-hander be ready for a potential American League Division Series, the team isn’t used to dealing with these health variables.
On top of that, Max Scherzer has lost steam down the stretch, posting an even 9.00 ERA over his past six starts (25 innings), but he may still end up with a spot in the postseason rotation given the injuries. This all makes Trey Yesavage (Toronto’s No. 1 prospect, MLB’s No. 25) one of the most important players on this roster, even if the 22-year-old has only made two MLB starts since joining the Blue Jays last week.
Everything about this season has been unexpected for Toronto, but most of the time, that’s been good news. Baseball has a way of balancing things out, though, and the Blue Jays’ rotation is feeling the brunt of it.