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.
In what ways have the jays had trouble getting big name FAs, please be specific
Maybe he can’t get Ohtani and the plane trip that wasn’t out of his head.
Yep. If there’s a good place to be in the world right now, I’m thinking it’s Canada.
Obviously it’s hard to get free agents to come to Canada not only because they get paid in that funny Canadian currency but every time they enter and leave the country they have to declare Customs and take their shoes off. It doesn’t help that they blow World Series titles as if it’s no big deal, we’ll be back next year, no problem.
No one falls for your low IQ trolling anymore, time for a new schtick
He was going to be a free agent ahead of his age 28 season. A long term deal from 28-34 is mostly prime aged seasons and he’d been a good, durable mid rotation or even better starting pitcher. I don’t think their thought process was that complicated.
Perhaps a little bit of an overpay but it’s not like the guy has messed the bed.
They were thinking they had a then 27 yr old work horse coming off best year of his career. At that time 4 of the 5 full seasons he had been in MLB he pitched to a sub 4 ERA. Only the shortened Covid 2020 where he had exactly a 4.00 ERA was he not sub 4.
I think the better question is why would you question their thinking? Since signing the extension he had 3 straight seasons starting 32 games and started 30 last season. He has made under $19M all 4 seasons, hes been an absolute steal for a SP in todays MLB economics.
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.
Gomer33, baseball fans are not allowed to have any optimism. Are you new here?
Tell us who haven’t been paying attention to their offseason without telling us you haven’t been paying attention…
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.
I guess that is what I get for skimming. Oh well. Still seemed sketchy and mighty convenient for Toronto.
It’s in the article – elbow inflammation.
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.
Is that like rubbing dirt on it?
The fact he felt no discomfort is actually discomforting, IMO.
Exactly. It means the pain receptors in his brain aren’t working. Or he has a predilection for pouring heroin on his breakfast cereal.
Ouch. Lots of uncertainty in that rotation…
Gausman Cease Yesavage top 3 so as long as they stay healthy any controversy isnt really controversy
Thus why they entered spring training with 7 guys as possible starters and signed one more during ST
Blue Jays should just put on him on the shelf until May. Let that stress fracture fully heal.
Tell me your out for the year without telling me your out for the year. Every time I see any elbow break it seems to be, they are going to be out for a month or two. Then it turns into they are delayed from returning until mid season. Then we get the late July/early August out for the year.
Maybe I misread this but they didnt find the issue until he took a physical with the wbc PR team? Hadn’t he already reported to Spring Training and presumably passed a physical with the Jays? So the Jays missed it or something happened during ST?
S.T.- passed
WBC -failed
It’s IN the article.
How comprehensive are spring intake physicals? Maybe full imaging isn’t a part of that process if there are no outward signs or symptoms of an issue.
It would’ve taken you less time to read through the article than to write your post.
It’s a full battery of extensive testing with about a dozen stations with specialists. If a player does have a injury history, they’ll also do imaging.
That sound you just heard was Berrios picking up a 50M option… with his left arm though.
Berrios is being stubborn should be put in 15 day IL