The Toronto Blue Jays rotation continues to be a question mark a month into the season. Injuries have derailed their best laid plans. With Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, Bowden Francis and José Berrios not making it out of the gates to begin the season, the Blue Jays thought they still had a pretty competent starting five. But Cody Ponce lasted just three innings before a season ending injured. Then Max Scherzer started dealing with forearm tendinitis.
So Toronto picked up Patrick Corbin on a one-year $1 million deal which has worked out better than anyone could have expected, with Corbin pitching to a 3.65 ERA while eating up 24.2 innings with 20 strikeouts since his debut on Apr. 10. Beyond Corbin, Toronto has gotten exactly what they have needed out of top of the top of the rotation duo of Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease.
Trey Yesavage has returned and he'll be looked upon to hold down a middle of the rotation spot for the rest of the year as long as he is healthy. That leaves just one more spot to claim and there are currently two guys who the Blue Jays would love to just take that role and run with it. Unfortunately, neither Eric Lauer, nor José Berrios seem to want to do that.
Lauer has had mixed results and has also been somewhat of a distraction this season. He's been vocal about not being named a full-time starter. Then he was vocal about his displeasure aound the use of an opener ahead of him during his starts. Throw in the fact he may have been hiding an injury from manager John Schneider, and also battled a sickness early on in the year and the results speak for themselves. Lauer has a 6.03 ERA in 31.1 innings pitched in his seven games, (six starts) in which he's tabbed a career low 6.3 SO9 rate and his BB9 is up to 4.0 from the 2.2 mark he had last year.
And after allowing a three run home run to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday (May 4) in the series opener at Tropicana Field, Lauer now has a 7.50 ERA in the first inning of a game, allowing the opposition to hit .308/.357/.692 with a 1.049 OPS against him.
But with everyone else on the mend, Lauer has been given the runway to try and make it work until someone else gets healthy enough to take over for him. That someone else should be Berrios. But as the 31-year-old from Puerto Rico continues his rehab assignment, the results aren't inspiring any confidence either.
Berrios should be in the rotation, but can the Blue Jays trust him?
Berrios has pitched in four minor league games and has given up 17 earned runs in 14.1 innings pitched. He's walked 10.3% of the batters he has faced and hitters have hit .322 off of him. Sure, the results don't matter as much during these rehab outings, it's the process and whether or not he has been hitting certain bench marks. However, it doesn't seem like he is getting to checking off any of those boxes.
Berrios is said to be meeting with Blue Jays coaching staff on Tuesday (May 5) to discuss his next steps and that could mean they are just going to throw him into the rotation and hope for the best. It could also mean that the Blue Jays need to see him throw at least one more outing in the minors before making an actual decision.
José Berríos is joining the #BlueJays today in Tampa, and they’ll talk with him about next steps.
— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) May 4, 2026
Schneider: “Just want to sit down with him, Pete and the trainers, and kind of see exactly where he's at and what he's comfortable with going forward.“
With an average annual value of $18.7 million per season through 2028, the Blue Jays can't just simply let him go. They need to try and figure out if they can make this work. Berrios does have an opt-out in his contract at the end of this year, but is unlikely to take that option. He's also not on anybody's radar as a trade candidate at this moment, unless someone gets really desperate and is willing to take on that salary.
What the Blue Jays have to hope is that Berrios can showcase some of what made him so good over the last few years up until he basically hit a wall and was put on the injured list for the first time in his career late last season. Until then, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place on continuing to put Lauer out to begin ball games every fifth day or making the swtich to Berrios and seeing if he can come through in games that count for the Blue Jays.