logo
José Berríos’ playoff audition isn’t off to a strong start
alt
Photo credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Thomas Hall
Sep 3, 2025, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 3, 2025, 14:29 EDT
Comments
As the regular season begins its final month, it’s officially the time of the year when players start auditioning for playoff roles — marking a crucial point in the schedule for the Toronto Blue Jays, particularly their starting rotation.
Suddenly, this team is stocked up on major league-calibre starters. To the point that it has pushed Eric Lauer to the bullpen as they transition back to a five-man rotation. Without looking ahead too far, as there’s still plenty of games left to play, it’s easy to start envisioning what a playoff rotation might look like next month.
If healthy, the Blue Jays already have the makings of a formidable trio at the top, featuring Shane Bieber, Kevin Gausman and Max Scherzer. But they’ll need a fourth starter if they advance through the wild-card round or bypass it completely by winning the AL East and finishing with one of the top two records in the league, earning a first-round bye to the division series.
As of now, they’d have three options to choose from: José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Lauer. The problem, however, is that there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut choice from that trio, as none of them has performed up to expectations lately.
Toronto will likely use these final few weeks as an audition to round out its playoff rotation. But this dilemma probably won’t get any easier from here, especially after Berríos lasted just two innings — his shortest start as a Blue Jay since Opening Day 2022 — during Tuesday’s 12-9 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Only two of the six runs charged to Berríos were earned, but he struggled mightily with his command, nearly throwing as many balls (31) as strikes (35) before being lifted after 66 pitches.
“Honestly, I was trying to do my best but I felt out of rhythm,” Berríos told reporters post-game in Cincinnati, including Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. “That’s part of the game. Some days you feel like that, and tonight was a game where I didn’t have control of my pitches.”
Berríos was understandably rusty after having this start pushed back, creating a sizeable gap between his previous outing against the Miami Marlins on Aug. 23, where he impressed with eight strikeouts over 6.1 innings of two-run ball. The extended break had a positive impact on his stuff, with his sinker averaging 92.7 m.p.h. — its highest mark since June 4 (93 m.p.h.).
At the same time, though, it didn’t help the right-hander’s effectiveness on the mound. He struggled to attack the strike zone early, landing first-pitch strikes to just five of the 14 batters he faced, while seven of the nine balls put in play against him were hit hard (95 m.p.h. or higher).
Fortunately, the Blue Jays’ offence was able to slug their way to victory, blasting four home runs — a pair from George Springer to increase his season total to 26, a career-high for his tenure with Toronto — on 12 hits versus the Reds’ bullpen day after Nick Lodolo was scratched with an illness.
But the club’s bullpen also stepped up one day after being responsible for another crushing ninth-inning implosion. The trio of Louis Varland, Seranthony Domínguez and Jeff Hoffman silenced Cincinnati’s comeback efforts in the later innings, surrendering one earned run over 3.2 combined innings, striking out four.
“They’ve got my back,” Berríos said. “I’m happy for them. It was my bad that they had to use a lot of the bullpen today. I tried, it didn’t happen and the bullpen did their job.”
As exceptional as Berríos was in Miami, the 31-year-old hurler has sandwiched that dominant outing between a pair of clunkers, earning him a troubling 4.81 ERA and 4.96 FIP in eight post-All-Star-break starts. No other Blue Jay starter has been worth less than him in that span, given his 0.1 fWAR across 39.1 innings.
If these inconsistencies continue through September, it’ll be extremely tough for Berríos — scheduled to start Tuesday versus Houston — to crack Toronto’s post-season rotation this fall, and perhaps the playoff roster altogether. With his low-strikeout, high-home-run profile, he wouldn’t be an ideal bullpen candidate — even as a multi-inning reliever.
Plus, the Blue Jays have two other arms who could fill that role — Lauer and Bassitt. While the latter doesn’t profile well out of the ‘pen either, he’s already made a relief appearance this season and features far more experience in that type of role than Berríos, who’s started in all but one of his 272 career major league games.
Having too many quality starters is never a bad problem. In this case, however, it doesn’t present any simple solutions as the race to October intensifies.

Featured

News

Breaking News