The Toronto Blue Jays may have some difficulty carving out a role for José Berríos in their postseason rotation. Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star pointed out in a Thursday opinion piece that in a scenario that sees the Jays go to a third game in the AL Wild Card Series, Berríos could find himself coming out of the bullpen.
Berríos has not been the pitcher Toronto had hoped he would be since the club gave him the second largest contract in franchise history in terms of total value last offseason. Nearly a season into his seven-year, $131 million extension, the twenty-eight year old right-hander has struggled to turn out quality outings with any consistency. Excluding a rough rookie season, Berríos is posting career worsts in ERA, WHIP, K/9, HR/9, BABIP, and HardHit%. He is also not trending in the right direction, accumulating a 6.92 ERA in the month of August and conceding six earned runs in just two innings to the Rays on Thursday night.
Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman are the presumptive choices for the Jays’ first two games of the best-of-three Wild Card Series. If that series goes to a decisive third game, barring injury, manager John Schneider will likely face a choice between starting Ross Stripling, who has had an excellent 2022, or Berríos.
More on other pitching situations from around the league…
- White Sox righty Lucas Giolito is another tenured AL ace that has not pitched to his potential in 2022. His 5.05 ERA, 1.477 WHIP, and 9.9 H/9 are his worst since he broke out in 2019. After a September 16th start in which he gutted out 4 2/3 innings of one run ball, Giolito told James Fagan of The Athletic that his stuff was “obviously just like, not really there,” as it has been for most of the season. He continued on to cite a lack of fastball velocity as a chief contributor to his 2022 struggles. Giolito’s four-seam velocity has averaged 92.9 mph this season, a full 1.5 mph slower than his 2019 peak. The Sox can retain him for one more season via arbitration before he is scheduled to reach free agency as a 29-year-old, with Giolito surely hoping to find a way to have a better campaign in his platform year.
- Nathan Eovaldi, who will be a free agent this offseason, alluded to his desire to re-sign with the Red Sox in an interview with Chad Jennings of The Athletic. “I love being here,” Eovaldi said. “It’s the front office, it’s the coaching staff, the training staff. Here, they all want to win.” It is unclear whether the 32-year old fits into Boston’s future plans. The Red Sox are on the precipice of a potentially turbulent offseason in which Eovaldi and DH J.D. Martinez are free agents and the contracts of superstars Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts have yet to be resolved. Boston’s uncertain future, in addition to the fact that Eovaldi spent so much of his 2018 pact with the Red Sox on the IL, casts some doubt on the notion that Red Sox will share Eovaldi’s interest in a reunion. However, with Rich Hill and Michael Wacha both headed into free agency as well, the club will certainly be looking to fill some rotation holes for 2023.
- Reds lefty Mike Minor told Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he is considering retirement at the conclusion of the 2022 season. “I’d have to feel good, and I’d have to want to play and want to be away from my family again,” Minor said. Three years removed from an All-Star nod with the Rangers, Minor battled injuries for the first two months of 2022. In total, he has thrown 98 innings to the tune of a 6.06 ERA for a non-competitive Reds team. Minor will face free agency this offseason should he elect to return to the big-leagues for a 12th year.
Is it safe to say that the Jose Berrios trade has been a dud for the Jays? I guess all Toronto fans have to grasp to is that maybe Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson might not pan out as thought.
The extension looks like it might the killer.
I didn’t love the trade at the time as a Jays fan but liked it alot more after news of the extension initially.
I’m not sure how could see this result for a guy who has never missed a start and basically finishes with the same numbers every year…. Before 2022
If Jose can not be the Jose Berrios of old in 2023 and beyond I think will greatly effect the contention window of the Jays which 130+million tied up with a 5ERA pitcher
I think it’s more than likely he reverts to the pitcher he’s been for the last seven seasons. Lots of solid pitchers have dud years. His drop in strikeouts is concerning though. But if we look at his xFIP of 4.21 this season it is in-line with career ERA of 4.18.
How about Gio dropping 3 mph from his fastball? Does that concern you?
Maybe, power pitchers that heavily rely on breaking pitches always worry me, at some point it catches up with most of them.
hlflew – It’s hard to say from the article if the trade has been a dud, as there’s no numbers included in the “career worst” sentence and I’m still trying to figure out what the 6.92 in August represents as it doesn’t say.
Don’t be that guy fever pitch. The very next sentence mentions him giving up 2 runs to the rays. They obviously forgot to put era there. Yes this site needs proofreaders but let’s pretend we have some form of reading comprehension
Heat – That’s not an assumption that could be made, considering the plethora of statistics that are often used here on a regular basis.
Not trending in the right direction doesn’t necessarily refer to ERA only, it could easily refer to two totally separate statistics.
Nobody is criticizing the writer, who I believe is relatively new as I don’t recall seeing his name before. The other writers are great at providing information, I’m guessing they’d like to maintain that standard across the board.
I wouldn’t refer to any writer on this site as great. Again great would mean checking your facts and proofreading EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE. I will admit they made a great decision moving on from Zach Links. Half of his articles mentioned players on the wrong teams
Heat – I think overall the writers here do a very good job, especially Steve and of course Tim. I wouldn’t be here so much if I thought differently. The Red Sox beat reporter, who works for John Henry’s Boston Globe, makes me appreciate the MLBTR crew even more. Pete Abe can’t hold a candle to Peter Gammons, Gorden Edes, or the late Nick Cafardo.
I don’t recall ever reading Zach’s articles, thankfully. Jajaja!
I think Zach was mainly on the NFL feed. Most of his comment sections were just people correcting him. I think Tim has put together a nice site here, but between the begging for subscriptions in every chat plus the posts about them, and then the fact they don’t check their work keeps it from being a top news website.
Still miles ahead of espn I’ll give them that
As much as he has awful starts, he has more good ones than bad. His team has a record of 22-9 in his 31 starts and only a couple wins are due to great fortune of his team bailing him out.
Any teams out there not like a pitcher who can help them win 22 of his 31 starts, even if his bad days are very uncompetitive?
I’ve tried to cling to that narrative most of the summer myself . But the fact is his pitching Savant page has WAYYY too much blue .
When he’s on he’s a good pitcher. He’s just horrible when he’s not. It’s hard to watch no doubt but the overall record is strong.
When it comes to the playoffs, certainly is hard to stomach handing him the ball when you have doubts about which version you are getting. No disputing the problem there.
my mistake: he’s made only thirty starts and the record is 22-8.
His team has a record of 22-9 in his 31 starts
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The Jays have scored 5.87 RPG for him. That’s pretty big.
Berrios is a bum from the central who came to the ultra competitive east. Been saying this for a year!! Atkins and Shapiro both need, to take their middling mlb central experience and go. Trading all these high leverage prospects for mediocre talent. This year makes it even more evident.
I was incorrect— he has only 30 starts and his team is 22-8 in those starts. In those 22 games his team won, he has a 3.30 ERA.
If you take away the two games he was very fortunate his team won (because he allowed 10 ER in 2.2 IP) he has a 2.66 ERA in the 20 starts his team won.
This is hardly a bum no team would want. Pitching him in a playoff game is a big roll of the dice, even if he is good 2 out of 3 times you give him the ball over the season.
Gentlemen;
MLB is a playoff league.
The playoffs are a new season.
Most teams want them managed them differently than the regular season. The way they’re managed today, players – particularly pitchers – that don’t have it that day will be sat down early to give others a chance. What Barrios did or didn’t do in the regular season doesn’t matter. What will matter is how his pitches are working the day he pitches.
This is such a lazy take considering he’s only thrown three bad starts this year against an AL East opponent. He’s actually been destroyed by teams out of the division. Two of his three starts against Tampa have been bad and one of his three against New York were.
Giolito is not an ace. A mid 3 ERA is a number 3 starter. Same as Berrios. Paying a number 3 starter like an ace doesn’t make him one. Chris Bassitt for example. Great number 3 starter behind deGrom and Scherzer. Not an ace.
Wait, what is the ace stuff ? Admittedly I didn’t read the Gio stuff, was there something describing any of those guys as ace ? Just lost of the point ?
Gio wants to get paid like he is an Ace, is the poster’s point..
Kudos to the FO for not extending him last winter. I’m sure the temptation was there, but so often the best deal is one that was never made. Giolito will have to kill it next year to get any kind of a decent offer as a FA.
Giolito wasn’t signing an extension unless it was well into nine figures. When was the last time the Sox signed somebody to an over $100 million contract?
A main point regarding Giolito as well as a number of the White Sox underachievers, is that they are overhyped throughout the season by one, Steve Stone. Old Stoney has yet to come to a moment that he can contain himself.
When Stone does his weekly radio guest appearances, or a game broadcast- he is the major reason for Sox fans misguided reality.
Except Bassitt would be the ace of a third of the teams in MLB and a solid #2 on most of the remaining ones. Not very many teams have a 1-2 punch like Scherzer and deGrom.
Plus it really just depends on your definition of an ace. The original definition of an ace was the best pitcher on any team’s starting rotation. ie the #1 starter. Meaning both Scherzer and deGrom would NOT be aces this season. But German Marquez would.
Aces make a lot more than $18M a season. Cole, Scherzer, Sale, Price, Strausburg, and Bauer (theoretically) all average over $30M a year.
Cubs should offer Madrigal back to the Chisox, for Giolito. Sox might love not having to pick up his $12M final year of arbitration.
Cubs could use one more stater for the beginning of next season.
Looking at Giolito’s season he’s not been awful overall if you can look past the two games he faced the Astros and the two he faced the Blue Jays. His ERA outside of facing those vaunted offences totals 3.82 — 56 ER in 142 innings. Not an ace, but he’s not a guy you are afraid to carry you through the regular season.
While I’m at it, Eovaldi has one awful start against the Astros and one against the Jays. Outside of those, a 2.96 ERA.
It really changes how you look at a guy’s season and his consistency when you can see how rarely he is off, and to what degree his off days color the overall picture.
Ok, but you should be also be taking away his best starts and refiguring if you’re going to take away his worst starts.
That’s pretty standard for most pitchers. Part of everyone’s ERA includes a couple of games where they got busted up. The best part of fantasy BB is trying to figure out if a given pitcher is as bad as his stats.
It seems like 4-5 missing MPH is a kind of big data point to leave out
Gio is awful, and I would only trust to eat innings and be a .500 pitcher at best. He also disappeared when they needed him most (to be fair a lot of players did this on the Sox). Now, this may be magnified by the idea the FO posed that Gio is the Ace of this team, but he was godawful… Especially teams he had to show up and beat. Now, could he be better next season? I guess but not for what he wants to be paid.. He wants Ace money, but is not going to get it from the Sox and if he was a FA and went to another club they would likely give him a 1 yr ‘prove it’ contract.
Giolito has been bad. He is a #5 starter. I believe he cannot wait to play out his contract and get onto a West coast roster.
The best thing the Chisox could do this winter, would be to unload him for a decent LH hitting infielder. That would give them a total of one. Yoan Moncada doesn’t fit that description.
I think you mean Giolito’s rates are his « highest » since breakout (low = good)
Eovaldi pretty clearly hasn’t been 100% for months.
How does he feel about closing?
I’m pretty Keene on that idea.
Mike Minor can always try to reunite with Linda Kaye Henning…
I think Jose Berrios should start game 3. He’s a good starter but does have a bad day more often than he should. It depends who’s more rested. If he’s not used in game 3, he will start game 1 of the next series. Some pitchers shouldn’t rest too long; some thrive on long rest.
Giolito never pitched well when the Sox needed him to. Especially this year. They’d go on a 4 game winning streak and Giolito would blow it against the Tigers or Royals.
Seems like he has a lot of problems controlling his emotions. Sox “low balled” him and instead of proving himself he stinks up the joint.
Maybe he’ll have that magical contract year in 2023 and the Sox can trade him cause he shouldn’t stay. Nor does he want to i believe.
What Kool Aid is Nathan Eovaldi drinking? The front office and coaching staff want to win? Has he seen this season? Has he seen the trades?
I wouldn’t mind Eovaldi back on a two year deal, anything beyond three at the most and they should probably let him walk.
Minor will be 35 in December and since lefties aren’t used the same as they were the days of the prolonged career of a lefty out of the bullpen are probably over. Playing on mostly bad teams the past few years can’t really help drive the desire to play either.
I have seen Inor all year and he has nothing left. Dude even said the catchers got the most out of him with his crap arm. So not surprised.
I want no part of Eovaldi unless it’s for short money. I’m not convinced the sox will make a QA nor should they. He has had one healthy and effective season over the life of that contract. Spend the money elsewhere.
Another loss today. Team was a complete embarrassment against the Yankees this year and against good teams. I don’t know this Red Sox team needs so much next year. They will most likely loose three starting pitchers Eovaldi, Hill, and Wacha. They need a left fielder, a starting catcher, a centerfielder, a first baseman. He has to sign Boggarts and Devers. None of the rookie pitchers have been overwhelming except maybe one, they need a closer and relief help. I cannot see management letting Bloom attempt to fix this with released players and throwaways. He does not have the experience or intelligence to fix this mess that he created.
Did you miss the bare cupboard free agent catchers post here the other day? The Sox are going to roll out McGuire/Wong, and they’ll be in better shape than a number of teams.
They need several pitchers, and a couple power bats in between DH and a corner OF spot. I’m not sure why you feel they need a starting CF and 1B? Team has made it pretty clear Kike and Casas will be starting at those positions next year. More depth? Sure, but those are the starters.
I’ll have a Troll Burger, with extra salt, and fry the piss out of it.
Do you want flies with that?
You think this Red Sox team was good this year? How would you fix it ?
I’m fine with Berrios getting playoff starts. It’s not like you ask for a ton from your starters in the playoffs anyway. But it’s also really interesting how the results, advanced metrics including “stuff” metrics, and eye test are all there for Stripling and there is this sense that Berrios not being super steady is such a problem for the Jays. They have two starters who are going to get some Cy Young consideration and Stripling has been excellent. Plus it’s playoff baseball and you’re not going to leave starters in long anyway if there are signs he doesn’t have it.
There is one issue, since we are talking about a wild card series then it’s only three games long. If you’re in game 3, it’s do or die. You put a guy in, he better be ready to deliver. It’s as pressure as it gets. The season can end that day.
No coming back from a game 3 loss. Can you trust Berrios to start? Could be in Tampa, Seattle or Cleveland and he has struggled on the road games more often. Can you trust him in relief for an inning or two of a close game?
Seven or five game series, maybe you trust him for game 3 or 4. But in the Wild Card series? I dunno. Tough call to give him the ball.
Yeah. They obviously would need to advance past the wild card series to need a fourth starter. If everyone is flexible enough, I’d probably plan on Manoah in the elimination game in the wild card series or game 1 of the ALDS if they sweep. To me Stripling is the other wild card starter for the reasons I stated in the above post. But that will depend on how the last week of the season plays out.