Blue Jays righty José Berríos 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’s beat (via Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet). Berríos is somewhat remarkably pain- and symptom-free. The current hope is that after a bit of down time, he’ll be able to pitch through the issue. It’s not clear exactly how long that’ll be, but for now he’ll take a few days off from throwing altogether.
Berríos 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’s team for the World Baseball Classic. An MRI conducted as part of that exam revealed inflammation in his elbow, which caught Berríos 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’s elbow.
Entering the fifth season of a seven-year, $131MM contract, Berríos had been hoping for a rebound effort. He’s 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’s 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’d logged from 2017-24.
A trip to the injured list is a rarity for Berríos. He’s been a starter every year of his major league career — 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). Berríos 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.
The Jays still owe Berríos $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’s relative down performance, that looked like a long shot even before news of this elbow issue popped up.
Berríos 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, Max Scherzer and Cody Ponce in free agency this offseason. Rookie Trey Yesavage is also locked into a rotation spot after a dominant late-season debut and postseason run. The Blue Jays have Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Cease, Yesavage, Ponce, Scherzer, Berríos and Eric Lauer on the roster, giving them eight viable starting pitchers for five spots.
Bieber is opening the season on the injured list due to some forearm fatigue. Berríos 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 — assuming the other six remain healthy. Lauer has voiced a desire to pitch out of the rotation — he’s a free agent next winter, after all — but said he’ll pitch in whatever role he’s asked. There’s been some trade speculation surrounding him, but with two starters already on the shelf, Toronto may not be keen on further thinning the staff.
Isnt this what schwellenbach suffered from? He missed final 3 months of 2025. And is now out for atleast 1st half of 2026
Schwellenbach had a fracture, not a stress fracture, and his current issue is separate from last year’s fracture. I suppose you can speculate as to whether there was causality between the fracture and the bone spurs, but that much hasn’t been expressly stated, to my knowledge.
He was also diagnosed after reporting considerable discomfort to the team. Berríos is currently pain-free. The placement of the fracture on the actual elbow, the size/grade/nature of the fracture, etc. all play a role in determining recovery.
Uh oh. Wish a quick recovery from Berrios, maybe Blue Jays add some depth.
I’m still wondering what Jays were thinking extending him to that deal.
Durability and consistency. He’s never a CYA candidate, but you will always get 30+ starts and 175+ SOs a season from him.
Scratch that latter part. The health part is true, but it seems his SO numbers have dipped.
Ya the time of the signing this was largely considered a good deal for both sides
because hindsight is 20-20?
To be fair, he never really wow’d me, even in Minnesota. Stuff was good but something about his mound presence really didn’t agree with me. Sucks he’s injured, but his extension was directly resulted with his lack of a better term “body of work”.
20-20, but with reading glasses.
I went back and looked at his extension article. Most people were basically like hey it’s a long term contract. Fist half of deal looks good back half bad but could even out and that most expected him to have gone to FA and make way more. Turns out hindsight is 20/20 and that the contract should have been 5 years instead of 7
Jays have had trouble getting big name free agents to stay in Toronto. They traded a lot to get Berrios, they wanted to keep him. No free agent starters of equal quality were going to sign in TO for the same money. I bet 60%+ of contracts for big name players look bad in hindsight, but JB is without a doubt part of why the jays have built up to where they are.
twenty twenty eight
I’m honestly not incredibly surprised he’s pain-free and symptom-free. The guy has barely (if ever) been injured in his entire career. It’s remarkable.
That WS trophy that Jays fans keep hoping for seems to be a bit further away from a lock every day….that’s why nobody has ever won the WS on paper…you have to play them all
Forgive my ignorance but aren’t most fans of contenting teams that are in go for it mode hoping for a WS trophy? Silly.
If he is “pain and symptom free” then why were they even checking for an injury in the first place? Seems a bit dubious, especially since Berrios was likely the odd man out of the rotation.
The team and Berríos only learned about it because he wanted to pitch for Puerto Rico in the WBC and players are generally required to do a basic physical for insurance reasons.
Careful. hiflew mutes people for correcting him.
Paging Mr Giolito. Mr Giolito you have a telephone call at the front desk
It sucks to hear about Jose, I hope he does well with his recovery & look forward to seeing him back on the mound.
Could it be from the pitch clock not giving enough rest between pitches? I think so
This is what happens to guys who never miss a start for 7 years
Their arm falls off at 32
Tonnes of guys like this over the years
Jays are going to get stuck with his contract I’m afraid
“pitch through the issue.” ???…look, I know your arm is broken, but go out there and give me a few innings. Seems legit
He was having no pain, and only an insurance MRI turned up the inflammation. He was back to 94 on the FB. A stress fracture isn’t the same as a normal fracture.
Personally, I think he should sit for 4 weeks and let it fully heal, but Berrios is a gamer (sometimes to his detriment) and if the doctor says he can pitch through it, he will definitely do that.
The fact he felt no discomfort is actually discomforting, IMO.