Blue Jays Ace Jose Berrios Struggles in Key Area Leads to Worrisome Results
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The Toronto Blue Jays were on the lookout for starting pitching help ahead of the MLB trade deadline and landed on former American League Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber, acquiring him from the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for pitching prospect Khal Stephen.
The expectation was that he would help fill in the rotation behind Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman. But, since that point, the team has been receiving consistent production from Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer as well. It has created a predicament for manager John Schneider, but he would assuredly have too much starting pitching than not enough.
A six-man rotation is a possibility, at least in the short term. It is something that Berrios could certainly benefit from with his production going awry over the last few weeks. He looks worn down at times on the mound, especially with his velocity showing a concerning dip recently.
Velocity lowering is certainly an issue for a pitcher to deal with. With his fastball not being as dynamic, the rest of his arsenal suffers. Opposing hitters are having a much easier time making hard contact and doing damage against him.
The drop in velocity is also having a major negative impact on another area of Berrios’s game. His ability to put batters away has disappeared. The number of times he has turned a two-strike count into a strikeout has slowly been plummeting as the campaign has moved along.
Jose Berrios Falling Short In One Key Area
As shared by Mitch Bannon of The Athletic (subscription required), he turned a two-strike count into a strikeout 23.2% of the time in April and May. In June, that number took a sharp turn in the wrong direction, dropping to 18.6%. Thus far in August, it is even worse at 15.1%.
In his most recent start against the Texas Rangers on Sunday, a major reason that Berrios unraveled was that he couldn’t put hitters away. Not only was he not striking them out, he wasn’t even recording outs. Rangers hitters recorded four hits off of him when facing two-strike counts.
There aren’t many pitchers in baseball who are as consistent as Berrios has been during his tenure with the Blue Jays. He takes the ball whenever it is his turn through the rotation and hasn’t been on the injured list a single time. But, he certainly looks like someone who would benefit from a little extra time off in between starts, even if it would require an adjustment schedule-wise.
Toronto has been able to survive the rough patch of Berrios to this point, going 7-2 in his last nine starts despite a 5.68 ERA, 5.62 FIP and 10 home runs allowed. How much longer they can keep that up is anyone’s guess, as the Blue Jays need him performing up to his capabilities to make a run in October.
