Jose Berrios has undergone Tommy John surgery and will miss the next 12–18 months after a diagnosis that began with elbow inflammation and included a complicated stress fracture that broke off and irritated the ligament.
NEW YORK — The kind of reliability the Toronto Blue Jays built their staff around finally broke Wednesday, when Jose Berrios underwent Tommy John surgery and was told he’ll be sidelined for the next 12-18 months.
For years, Berrios carried a reputation that bordered on inevitability. He pitched every fifth day for much of his run. appearing in 275 games with all but two coming as starts. and logging 1. 571.2 innings from 2017 through 2025. The nickname “La Makina” — Spanish for “The Machine” — fit because the body held up long enough for the routine to become a baseline.
The breakdown began last season, and it didn’t arrive all at once. Berrios was moved to the bullpen in September amid a rough stretch of outings. He made just one relief appearance before elbow inflammation sent him to the injured list for the first time in his big-league career.
During spring training in February, Berrios admitted he had doubts about his health dating back to the previous spring. He tried to pitch through it. but the effects surfaced in his numbers: in 30 starts overall. he posted a 4.06 ERA across 164 innings. Still, the decline wasn’t uniform. He had a 3.26 ERA through his first 17 starts, then posted a 5.37 mark in his final 13.
After a healing period, Berrios resumed building up last month. He was nearing a return in early May when his velocity dipped in consecutive rehab outings with Triple-A Buffalo. There was also more soreness than expected.
That pushed the process to a follow-up visit with Dr. Keith Meister. From there. the diagnosis led to surgery — not a straightforward path. because the team initially couldn’t treat it as a sure thing when the operation began. The stress fracture had broken off and caused irritation to the ligament. turning a complicated picture into the kind of injury that removes even best-case scenarios.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider didn’t hide the shock when he addressed what this means for the club. “Since we acquired him. he’s just been steady. been part of what we’re doing and reliable. obviously. ” Schneider said after revealing the news. “It’s weird not having him. We were looking for him to just kind of get back to normal a little bit and he was hoping for that. too. ….
“It sucks for him. It sucks for us,” he added. “I know he’ll attack the rehab. It’s just the time part of it sucks and not having him here sucks, too.”
Berrios’ absence doesn’t just thin the rotation. It stretches uncertainty into the future. The Blue Jays are essentially locked into $24 million apiece for the 2027 and 2028 seasons now that he’s certain not to exercise an opt-out at the end of this season. What the 31-year-old can still offer next year. and the year after. is no longer a question of timing and performance alone — it’s now tied directly to recovery.
More immediately, it removes a reliable base of innings from a starting group already dealing with multiple complications. The rotation also lost Cody Ponce for the season. Shane Bieber is still awaiting his first pitches of the season, and Max Scherzer is not yet back.
Scherzer did provide a brighter note Wednesday. He said the tendinitis in his forearm — the issue that led to problems in his ankle and thumb — resolved Saturday. He then threw pain-free at max effort at 90 feet, and led a bullpen Monday in New York. He is due to throw again Thursday. If that goes smoothly. Scherzer said. the team can move quickly: “you can accelerate and you can ramp up fast because you’re not actually coming back from a true injury.” He added. “I can really ramp as fast as I want. … I can get to 60 pitches pretty quick.”.
Bieber, meanwhile, remains in a recovery window but with a possible calendar marker. Schneider said Bieber could be pitching in rehab games by the end of next week “if all goes well.”
With Berrios now out, Spencer Miles will cover the rotation opening for now, either as a starter or as a bulk arm behind an opener. It’s a bridge attempt — the Blue Jays try to hold the structure together while waiting for returning pieces to become available.
And the contrast is stark. Throughout his career. when his teams faced the kind of pitching absences that force constant reshuffling. Berrios was the stability that helped keep the machinery running. Even for La Makina. though. there was no escaping the attrition that comes with throwing as often and as consistently as he did.
“There’s always risk whenever you’re throwing a ball,” Schneider said. “Pitchers know that. We know that. But it’s frustrating because in order to be durable. there’s so much that goes into it. in between your starts. off-season. all sorts of stuff that he was so good at. that a lot of our guys are really good at. And Pete (Walker, the pitching coach) is really good at communicating.
“With the durability comes a lot of wear and tear, a lot of innings over the course of however many years,” he continued. “The risk goes up as you do that. We’ve been pretty fortunate to have the opposite happen.”
Jose Berrios Tommy John surgery Toronto Blue Jays La Makina John Schneider Keith Meister Max Scherzer Shane Bieber Cody Ponce Spencer Miles