DUNEDIN, Fla. – Over the winter, as the Toronto Blue Jays and Jose Berrios sorted through the fallout from the right-hander’s decision to leave the team during the World Series, the inescapable reality was how much they both needed to make things work.
On the club’s end, the reasoning is pretty straightforward: His consistency on the mound is vital to the pitching staff, even if the rotation was bolstered and fully healthy; and getting him right after he finished last season on the injured list for the first time strengthens the chances of another deep run, all while rescuing a distressed asset.
For Berrios, things are pretty simple, too: He’s a consummate professional nicknamed La Makina because of his machine-like discipline who is still owed $18 million this year, and $24 million in each of the next two years if he doesn’t exercise an opt out in the fall, a lever he can only consider using if he restores his value in a big way.
So, the situation in recent weeks was, to use manager John Schneider’s word, “handled.” Berrios arrived at spring training and apologized individually to teammates, coaches and staff and completed the cycle of amends Thursday with a public mea culpa.
“Whatever happened last year is already in the past,” Berrios told reporters at the media backdrop outside the Player Development Complex clubhouse. “I made maybe one bad decision to go back home to keep working on my rehab and stay close to my family. At that moment, I wasn’t pitching, I’m not feeling great and I wanted to be close to my family. I didn’t bring them to Canada because they were going to miss days in school. I thought about that. But I apologize.”
The explanation for his departure aligned with the one Ross Atkins offered during his Nov. 6 season-wrap availability, but differed from the one the GM subsequently provided during December’s winter meetings, when he said Berrios “was not happy” about losing his rotation spot and leaving the team was, “his decision, I think he was just having a tough time, but you’d have to ask him.”
Asked to confirm that he’d left the team solely to rehab closer to home and not because he was unhappy, Berrios replied, “Honestly, I wasn’t (unhappy). I understand why I was out of the roster. Obviously, I wasn’t able to throw the ball, at any time. So that’s why I made that decision.”
Berrios did admit that he was “frustrated by the way I was feeling physically – for sure, I wanted to be out there to competing with my teammates,” but he added that “my teammates, the coaching staff, everyone treated me the right way.”
Berrios said he told the teammates closest to him that he was leaving after the Game 7 American League Championship Series win over the Seattle Mariners. And during his apologies, “I told them I understand if you don’t agree or are not happy with me.”
“But that’s what I did and I apologize for that,” he continued. “I want to turn the page as fast as I can, just keep working toward the same goal. Last year, we almost got it. This year, we have another opportunity.”
Schneider said the apologies from Berrios were important “because he’s so well respected for what he’s done in his career, what he’s done here. In talking to him throughout the off-season, and here, just try to move past it. He was frustrated with his health, his performance and kind of just a matter of circumstance with where we were in the season. It’s great that he’s being accountable and talking to his teammates. The cool thing about baseball players is we have a very, very short memory and when you have the track record that he has, it’s easy to get in front of it and say, like, hey, I messed up. There are things I wish I did differently in that situation, too. But you’re so locked into the World Series, you put it off to the side. But him being himself is the most important part.”
One of the things Schneider wishes the Blue Jays had done differently was to have more clarity for injured players, who all season long moved back and forth between Toronto and Dunedin, sometimes travelling with the team, sometimes not.
“When you’re in it, trying to reach the ultimate goal, it’s possible for some of the things to slip through the cracks and put it off until you can have time to breathe,” said Schneider. “So having more guardrails on everyone’s situation and being in tune with everyone’s wants and needs in really high-stress environments, that’s what I wish that we did a little bit better.”
For his part, Berris said, “if my kids didn’t have school, I (would have) stayed. But they were in school. They want to come to Toronto because they want to be with me. But at the same time, I wasn’t able to throw in a game, so I didn’t want to waste days of school. That’s why I made the decision. I thought being close to my family was (going to be) better for me and (it) wasn’t. I made a bad decision.”
Nothing will wash away any lingering effects of that decision more than Berrios pitching at his best again. During the off-season, he rehabbed out the right elbow inflammation that landed him on the injured list and built up the surrounding area, while mobility work has his arm, legs and hips feeling strong, he said.
On the mound, an ongoing focus is being better with his fastball command, “getting it where I want to throw it.” That should help him improve two concerning numbers from last season – an .812 OPS against right-handed batters, well above the .692 of lefties; and the .880 OPS against when going through a lineup for the third time, compared to .692 and .703 the first two turns through.
Shane Bieber’s slower buildup gives Berrios a direct path back to the rotation and he’s intent on winning it, saying he’s never come to spring training believing he was guaranteed to be “one of the five men in the rotation. I have to earn that spot. That’s why I am here.”
Back with the Blue Jays, both he and the team are trying to write a new page.