Monday, July 07

TORONTO -- When José Berríos is at his best, you barely notice him.

Berríos cuts through the water so smoothly, barely a ripple above or behind him. He’s done this for a decade, too. Being good at the Major League level is hard, but staying good is baseball’s greatest challenge.

Outside of his early years with the Twins and the 2022 season which has proven to be the ultimate outlier, Berríos has been one of the steadiest, most predictable pitchers in the game. He’s revered within the sport as "La Makina," but without the peak seasons that lead to Cy Young races, Berríos’ name doesn’t land in as many conversations as it should. It’s weeks like this, though, that show just how valuable he is.

Fresh off short outings from Kevin Gausman and Spencer Turnbull the past two days, the Blue Jays needed a steady hand. It’s when a little chaos begins to bubble up around Berríos that his incredible consistency can be viewed as a true gift, not just a style. In Saturday afternoon’s 7-1 win, Berríos gave Toronto 7 2/3 innings with one unearned run allowed, the right performance at the right time.

“That was perfect. That was awesome,” manager John Schneider said of Berríos' outing. “He settled in. There was a hit to lead off the game, then he just settled in. He got some quick contact, a couple of double plays. He was great. He was exactly what we needed. That’s how you answer back after a tough game last night.”

Few pitchers have a feel for the moment like Berríos, which is perhaps made easier by the foundation he’s built for himself. His workouts are a thing of legend, which shows up in his games started over the past six full seasons (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign): 32, 32, 32, 32, 32 and … 32.

Berríos is on pace to do the same this season and should land comfortably in the range of 180 innings, which feels like the new 200-inning plateau in the modern game. Timely moments like Saturday’s are crucial to this team as it battles rotation depth issues, but that’s a conversation about the floor of this roster. Berríos can raise its ceiling, too.

If the postseason started today, Berríos feels like he'd be the Blue Jays’ Game 1 starter with Gausman struggling of late. Game 2 of the 2023 AL Wild Card Series against the Twins will always be remembered for the decision to lift Berríos early and bring in Yusei Kikuchi.

But before that happened, Berríos was absolutely dominant, perhaps the best he’s looked in a Blue Jays uniform. He was rising to a moment, which is a moment he’s desperate to feel again. If Toronto was to go on a postseason run -- especially a deep one -- Berríos is built to throw all October, a machine plowing forward.

“This is my job and that is my goal: To try to go longer in the game,” Berríos said. “Thank God that I was able to throw 7 2/3 today. I’m happy.”

It helps when the game buzzes along, too, which kept Berríos fresh and engaged. With home runs from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette on top of Berríos’ great outing, this is what the Blue Jays look like when everything is going as it should. There haven’t been many of those games this year, given all of the surprise contributors, but Berríos and Toronto's veterans sense this momentum building.

All of this is particularly helpful as the Blue Jays navigate what they hope will be the final days of their rotation juggling. Max Scherzer is almost back, but he and Toronto's pitching staff aren’t out of the woods quite yet.

While the likely future Hall of Famer is expected to pitch at some point during next week’s Cleveland series, his between-starts bullpen session was just bumped from Saturday to Sunday as the Blue Jays are “feeling through” his return timeline.

“After his outing, he said he was pretty sore just in the thumb and the hand,” Schneider said. “The plan [is to throw Sunday], but if we needed to adjust, we’d adjust. The off-day helps, too, on Monday, and we can line up our rotation accordingly.”

It’s all starting to orbit around Berríos again, though. Perhaps it always has, but it just happens so quietly and constantly, like Berríos himself.

A year ago, No. 7 prospect Landen Maroudis felt like the next Ricky Tiedemann in this system, a young pitcher taking an extreme and sudden jump in the rankings early in his pro career. Then, a right elbow surgery slowed all of that momentum. 

Maroudis is back now, and both of his starts with Single-A Dunedin have been four scoreless innings. Granted, Maroudis’ stuff still has some room to build back up, which is expected to an extent, but it’s worth monitoring just how far that grows through the rest of 2025. 

Regardless, having Maroudis back on the mound is a step in the right direction. After waves of elbow injuries last season, it’s refreshing to hear about all of these returns, which should soon include Alek Manoah and -- late in the season -- Tiedemann, too.

Lazaro Estrada (No. 25 prospect) had a brutal start to his season. There’s no way around that, but if you chop off those first two starts with Triple-A Buffalo (nine earned runs over 2 2/3 innings), the picture is more encouraging.

If we’re a little more generous and look at Estrada’s numbers since the beginning of May, he’s posted a 2.35 ERA over eight starts (38 1/3 innings) and been a model of consistency. The 26-year-old isn’t going to overpower anyone, but with this stretch, he’s absolutely put himself back into the conversation if the Blue Jays need another depth starter or bulk arm. 

To subscribe to Blue Jays Beat, visit this page and mark "Blue Jays Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Blue Jays or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.