Blue Jays: José Berríos struggles in first rehab start

The Toronto Blue Jays will get starting pitching reinforcements sooner rather than later.

On Thursday evening, José Berríos made his first rehab start of the season. Pitching for the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, the right-handed pitcher went two and two-thirds innings with five earned runs allowed, a walk, and three strikeouts.

It started poorly for the big leaguer, as Berríos gave up a lead-off double on the first pitch he threw. The following pitch, he gave up a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. Berríos’ third batter walked, before he finally got an out thanks to a pop up. 

Unfortunately, Matthew Ferrara doubled to drive in two runs. Then, Juan Villavicencio grounded out, bringing home the third run of the inning. It went from bad to worse, as Nolan Beltran singled, giving the Clearwater Threshers a 4-0 lead. He got out of the inning thanks to a strikeout.

Berríos settled down from there. In the second inning, he struck out Jack Barker, followed by two groundouts. The right-handed pitcher got the first two outs of the top of the third, thanks to his third strikeout and a pop up, but Ferrara took him deep to give the Threshers a 5-3 lead.

Overall, Berríos threw 47 pitches, 39 of which were for strikes. Results aren’t all that important when it comes to rehab assignments, and there are some positive takeaways when regarding his velocity. His four-seam fastball averaged 94.2 mph, up from the 93 mph it averaged last season with the Blue Jays.

Berríos generated 10 whiffs, two on his slurve, two on his four-seam fastball, and two on his changeup. Additionally, he generated four whiffs on unidentified pitches, as the D-Jays statcast was having issues on Thursday evening.

The results weren’t great for Berríos, but seeing him average over 94 mph on his four-seam fastball is a positive sign going back to last season. If the Blue Jays have the same game plan for Berríos as they did Trey Yesavage, expect him to make another start in Single-A, before pitching at a higher-level. Expect that to come at some point next week.