José Berríos had a solid season with the Toronto Blue Jays last year.
This is Blue Jays Nation’s annual 40-man Roster Review, where we look at the players on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster. We’ll look at how the player performed in 2024, his season projections for the 2025 season, and any storylines heading into this coming season. In this article, we’ll look at José Berríos.
The Blue Jays acquired Berríos before the 2021 trade deadline from the Minnesota Twins to help push for a postseason run. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays fell short on the final day of the season but made the postseason in 2022 and 2023. Berríos’ 2022 season wasn’t good, finishing with a career-worst (min: 15 starts) 5.43 ERA in 172 innings pitched.
However, the righty rebounded nicely in 2023, finishing the season with a 3.65 ERA and a 3.99 FIP in 189.2 innings pitched. This past season, the 30-year-old had a 3.60 ERA, the best in a full season with the Jays, while his 4.72 FIP was the worst of his career, aside from his 58.1 innings pitched in his rookie season back in 2016.
A large part of this was due to his lack of strikeouts, as his 19.5 K% was the worst of his career aside from the 2016 season. Moreover, he gave up 31 home runs, tied for the second-most in the league behind just Kutter Crawford of the Boston Red Sox.
Berríos’ Fangprahs Steamer projections aren’t kind to him. It predicts he’ll have a 4.27 ERA and a 4.29 FIP in 191 innings pitched, with a 20.4 K% and a 6.5 BB%. Simply put, he has to be better than this.
There’s a chance this will be Berríos’ penultimate season with the Blue Jays. Before the 2022 season, the righty signed a seven-year, $131 million deal, one of the largest contracts the Jays have given out in franchise history. However, the deal comes with an opt-out after the 2026 season and with how much pitchers are currently making in free agency, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he tests the open market if he does well in 2025 and 2026.
As always, you can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.