Following months of speculation, it was finally José Berríos’ turn to tell his side of the story surrounding his unceremonious departure from the team during last year’s World Series on Thursday. The 31-year-old starter said all the right things, owning accountability for the “bad mistake” he made and accepting responsibility for how it was handled.

Both he and the Toronto Blue Jays are eager to turn the page on this ugly note from an otherwise rather spectacular 2025 season. By all accounts, the relationships that were once on muddy terms have since been mended, seemingly providing all involved with a clean slate here.

After all, there are much larger matters to attend to, as this franchise prepares for another deep run into October, one that everyone hopes will result in a second consecutive World Series appearance this fall.

But every new beginning has to start somewhere. For Berríos, the most effective way he can move past this controversy is by proving himself on the mound again after finishing last season on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.

It was the first time in Berríos’ highly-regarded career that he had spent time on the IL, and his injury absence also snapped his consecutive start streak of 32 per season since 2018 — excluding the COVID-shortened ’20 campaign. But even before landing on the shelf, the veteran right-hander’s poor second-half results could no longer be overlooked with more promising starting options available, costing him his rotation spot.

Present day, even with Shane Bieber starting this season on the IL as he ramps up slowly in his first full post-Tommy John campaign, Berríos isn’t guaranteed anything. He has to earn his rotation spot back, though his path to accomplishing that feat is much simpler than it was a week ago.

Barring any complications to Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage and Cody Ponce, much of this spring will likely be devoted to Berríos competing against Eric Lauer for the fifth starter’s job. Both hurlers will be stretched out, providing a safety net to protect against any additional injuries, although Lauer’s profile makes him an ideal fit for the multi-inning reliever role in Toronto’s bullpen.

Nevertheless, it figures to remain an open competition.

Berríos has a straightforward path to earning back his rotation spot. Despite how last season ended, he’s still one of baseball’s most durable and consistent pitchers, capable of providing mid-rotation value from the No. 5 spot. Now that he’s healthy, rebounding from the elbow and biceps discomfort that impacted his mechanics and command, he’ll aim to overcome the warning signs that plagued his 2025 performance.

Consider this: Berríos enjoyed his best stretch of the year from May 29 to June 27, with his dazzling 1.66 ERA placing fifth-lowest out of 79 qualified major-league pitchers during that span. Only Jacob deGrom (1.41), Ranger Suárez (1.30), Hunter Brown (1.19) and Clarke Schmidt (1.00) finished with lower ERAs.

Over Berríos’ final 13 games (12 starts), however, his ERA ballooned to 5.63 and was paired with a concerning 5.48 FIP, 1.97 HR/9 and 10.6 per cent strikeout-minus-walk rate (K-BB%). Those prolonged woes also meant he wasn’t pitching as deep into games, logging at least six innings in just three of his final 12 starts compared to the 11 times he reached that mark across his first 17 starts.

As the Blue Jays’ fifth starter, making a third trip through an opposing lineup would likely be more of a bonus than a necessity with Berríos, who struggled mightily in those matchups last season, as opponents slashed .287/.329/.545 with a .370 wOBA when seeing him a third time. But he still holds value in this regard, serving as another option to minimize the bullpen’s workload, if he can return to form.

Part of that will include missing barrels more consistently, which primarily fuelled Berríos’ home run concerns — his 1.43 HR/9 ranks eighth-highest among big-league pitchers with at least 300 innings pitched since 2024 — last season, courtesy of his career-worst 11.3 per cent barrel rate against.

None of the right-hander’s five pitches suffered more from his ineffective command than his sinker, which averaged the second-lowest velocity (92.2 m.p.h.) of his career in ’25. Just one season after it posted its lowest barrel rate against (six per cent) since pre-COVID, opposing hitters — mostly righties, which slugged .510 with an even more troubling .597 xSLG against it — improved that clip to a career-worst 13.4 per cent.

Improved fastball command, of course, will play a key role in Berríos’ return-to-form performance this season. Not only for the effectiveness of the pitch itself, but also to improve his primary swing-and-miss weapon — his low-80s slurve, which saw its chase rate decline almost two per cent last season.

Like any pitcher, the Puerto Rican-born hurler — who won’t represent his country at next month’s World Baseball Classic due to insurance issues, but could be named as a replacement if they advance further in the best-on-best tournament — can’t perform at his best without having his arsenal perform the way it needs to. That’ll be a primary area of focus for him and Toronto’s pitching department throughout this spring.

Both Berríos and the Blue Jays still need each other, adding to the importance of getting this restart correct from the start.

For the team, with uncertainty around when Bieber will return and the need to manage Yesavage’s workload, the more MLB-calibre starters you have, the better — as the rotation also figures to be the franchise’s biggest strength. For the player, he’ll need a bounce-back showing to rebuild his declining value after how the last two seasons have played out, especially with his player option looming after this season.

All that matters is returning to the World Series, and getting off on the right foot is exactly what Berríos needs to move past what unfollowed — both for him and the club — during last year’s Fall Classic.