Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos has had a full Tommy John surgery, per manager John Schneider, as relayed by Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. He will miss the entire 2026 season and a good chunk of 2027 as well. He is on the 15-day injured list but will be transferred to the 60-day IL whenever the Jays need a 40-man roster spot.
It has been a strange injury odyssey for Berríos, who was the most durable pitcher in the league until late last year. From 2018 through 2024, he made 32 starts in each full season, plus 12 in the shortened 2020 campaign. In 2025, he made 31 appearances but landed on the IL late in the year due to right elbow inflammation, his first time going on the IL as a big leaguer.
Berríos missed Toronto’s playoff run last year but appeared to be healthy going into 2026, making three spring training starts. He was then going to join the Puerto Rico team in the World Baseball Classic. A routine physical for that tournament showed some more elbow inflammation, even though he wasn’t experiencing any pain or symptoms. Things got stranger still when further testing revealed a stress fracture.
Despite the ominous diagnosis, Berríos began throwing again not long after and started a rehab assignment in mid-April. However, his results during those rehab starts were not good and his velocity started dropping. It was reported a few days ago that Berríos would undergo some kind of surgery here on Wednesday, but the details wouldn’t be known until it took place. Elbow surgery is always a big deal but it still seemed possible that a relatively minor procedure to address loose bodies, with a rough timeline of a few months, was a possibility.
But now the worst-case scenario has come to pass. Per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, the stress fracture damaged the ulnar collateral ligament, which made this surgery necessary. It’s been an unusual sequence of events, taken all together. It’s unclear exactly how or when this stress fracture occurred, since Berríos wasn’t in pain and it was seemingly only discovered by accident. If there was a risk of the fracture damaging the ligament, it’s unclear why Berríos was allowed to resume throwing or if there were any alternate paths to take.
Perhaps there will be some more clarity on the whole saga in time. Regardless, the result is that Berríos is now slated for a long recovery. A full Tommy John surgery usually requires a pitcher to take 14 months or more to get back on the mound, so Berríos might be looking at a return around the 2027 All-Star break in a best-case scenario from this point forward.
Back in 2021, Berríos and the Jays signed a seven-year extension worth $131MM. That deal allowed him to opt out after 2026, walking away from the final two years, both of which come with salaries of $24MM. Leaving two years and $48MM on the table would have seemed viable at his peak but Berríos wasn’t trending in the right direction. His strikeout rate dipped below 20% in both 2024 and 2025. This injury makes it a lock that he’ll forgo the opt-out and play out the remainder of the contract.
For the 2026 Blue Jays, this only adds to the huge number of rotation issues they have had to deal with. At one point earlier this year, it looked like they were eight starters deep on paper. In addition to Berríos, they had Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer. Berríos, Bieber and Yesavage all started the season on the IL, quickly dropping the Jays from eight to five. Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury in his first start, prompting the Jays to sign Patrick Corbin. Yesavage eventually came off the IL but Scherzer went the other way.
In addition to the injuries to those big league starters, the bodies have also been piling up in the depth department. Bowden Francis required Tommy John surgery a few months ago. Lazaro Estrada is on the IL with a shoulder impingement. Ricky Tiedemann‘s hasn’t pitched in official game action this year due to his ongoing injury issues. Jake Bloss is still working back from last year’s Tommy John, having just started a rehab assignment this month.
On top of the injuries, Lauer pitched so poorly that he got designated for assignment and then traded to the Dodgers. The Jays have four healthy starters in Gausman, Cease, Yesavage and Corbin but are currently patching together Lauer’s spot with bullpen games led by Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles, who came into the year with fewer than 15 innings in the minors and no appearances above Single-A.
They will now have to proceed knowing there’s no chance of Berríos coming back late in the year to help out. For the time being, they will be hoping that Scherzer, Bieber, Estrada or Bloss get healthy and re-enter the mix. Until that happens, some of their depth options at Triple-A include Josh Fleming, Austin Voth, Chad Dallas and CJ Van Eyk. Fleming has good numbers in Triple-A this year but was lit up by the Dodgers when called up to the majors. Voth has a solid ERA in Triple-A but with a very low strikeout rate. Dallas and Van Eyk both have ERAs under 3.50 this year but they don’t currently have any major league experience nor a spot on the 40-man.
It’s possible the Jays will enhance their efforts to add external arms, though the options aren’t amazing at this time of year. There aren’t really notable free agents and a big trade is hard to pull off as few teams are looking to sell this early.
In the longer term, the Jays will no longer be able to pencil Berríos into their rotation for the start of 2027. Gausman, Bieber and Scherzer are all impending free agents after 2026. The Jays should have Cease and Yesavage in two slots. Ponce will probably get a chance to take a spot, though he’ll be coming off an essentially lost season. Perhaps guys like Bloss, Estrada or others could push into the mix later this year, but there are clear gaps. Even before this news, the Jays were probably going to be looking for pitching in the coming offseason. Subtracting Berríos from the plans should only increase those odds.
Photo courtesy of Brian Fluharty, Imagn Images
