I love a Blue Jays transaction as much as the next fan. It’s genuinely a good feeling to hear the Blue Jays in on so many names, meaning they’re willing to drop a bunch of cash or set up a trade.

That being said, there’s one rumour that might need to cool down a bit.

After the Blue Jays reportedly signed 31-year-old Cody Ponce to a three-year, $30 million deal on Tuesday night, that news, coupled with the growing depth of Toronto’s starting pitching, stirred up many assumptions that José Berríos was bound to be traded. Sure, a lot of that was seen scrolling through a bunch of posts on X., and sure, those posts had some truth to them, with recent reports the Blue Jays will listen to offers.

Should the Blue Jays be listening to offers? Absolutely. They have depth in a certain area of their roster, and they have needs elsewhere. Berríos has three years left on his seven-year, $131 million contract, and trading him away from the roster would open up roughly $66 million over those years. Furthermore, Berríos has an opt-out after next season; it’s standard business to entertain trading a player who may choose to leave the organization in the near future, even if it seems like a shoo-in that he will opt in.

All of that makes sense from Toronto’s perspective, but Blue Jays fans shouldn’t bet the house on Berríos being dealt, and the Blue Jays shouldn’t be eager to get a deal done.

For one, be careful what you wish for when it comes to trading away pitching depth.

If it wasn’t for Eric Lauer, the Blue Jays were one pitching injury away from giving Easton Lucas a handful of starts last year with Max Scherzer missing multiple months of the season. Lucas had a couple of encouraging starts to open the season, but he allowed 18 earned runs over his last 14 innings and eventually wasn’t the solution anymore.

It’s been a trend for the Blue Jays over the past several seasons, handing spot starts or bulk relief innings to the likes of Casey Lawrence, Paolo Espino, and Mitch White, names who weren’t the flashiest but were needed in a pinch to get the job done.

Second, next year may be the perfect year for this team to have appropriate pitching depth.

Kevin Gausman just pitched a career-high 223 2/3 innings in 2025, and he’ll be turning 35 in just a matter of days. Trey Yesavage has earned himself a spot in the rotation, but do the Blue Jays monitor his innings so his first full MLB season doesn’t empty his tank? Wouldn’t some cushion in the rotation help if Shane Bieber still works through the kinks of recovering from Tommy John surgery?

Berríos was Toronto’s Opening Day starter last season. Despite a poor showing in that game against the Orioles, he churned out 12 quality starts over his next 18 appearances, posting a 3.19 ERA over that same span. The final 12 games of his season didn’t turn out as well for the veteran righty with the oft-allowed home run ball and a drop in fastball velocity coming back to bite him. He was placed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation on September 25th, ending his season, and this might have been the reason for his downturn late in the campaign.

Berríos has always pitched at the top of Toronto’s rotation except for the beginning of 2023. He’s made three Opening Day starts for the club, and he’s also made a playoff start that ended notoriously short. He’s made at least 30 starts in every full season since joining the Jays, and since 2018, no one else has logged more innings, and only Zack Wheeler and Luis Castillo have produced more quality starts.

Any defence of keeping Berríos on the roster may be invalidated if the relationship between him and the Blue Jays brass is permanently damaged. He wasn’t thrilled with the team’s decision to move him to the bullpen, although he still was willing to do what was best for the team.

Blue Jays manager Ross Atkins told reporters after the season that Berríos should have a “completely normal” offseason and be ready to go for Spring Training 2026, and with the resume that Berríos has built, he’s capable of rewriting the script on his tenure with the Blue Jays.

As mentioned earlier, there are sound arguments for moving Berríos. But the last two months of 2025 shouldn’t overshadow what he accomplished at the beginning of the season. Trading him should be far from a sure thing.

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