Should the Toronto Blue Jays consider trading Jose Berrios?

Shane Bieber made the first move himself when he decided against opting out of the final year of his contract, and then the Jays made the priciest free agent signing in franchise history by inking Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210MM contract.

Within less than a month after the end of the World Series, the Blue Jays rotation suddenly went from a question mark to all but settled.

The projected starting five looks like Cease, Bieber, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, and Jose Berrios, with Eric Lauer on hand as a swingman.

Adam Macko, Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis are further depth options. It's a deeper group with a higher ceiling than the starting pitching mix that got the Jays to the World Series, though it's possible another starter could still be added.

To make room in the rotation for a higher-caliber arm, the Jays could consider trading Berrios.

Berrios ended up being the odd man out of the starting mix even before a bout of elbow inflammation kept him sidelined for the Blue Jays' entire playoff run.

The Blue Jays planned to transition Berrios to bullpen work prior to the postseason, and Berrios made all of one relief appearance before hitting the injured list.

His eight-team no-trade clause, the three years and $66MM remaining on his contract, and the opt-out clause Berrios holds after the 2026 season.

There's also the fact that Berrios was pretty unspectacular in 2025, posting a 4.17 ERA and a set of below-average Statcast numbers across 166 innings.

Any Berrios suitor would be counting on a bounce-back, naturally, but primarily might be interested in the veteran righty as a durable source of innings.

Berrios' ability to eat innings makes him valuable to the Jays as well, considering how their pitchers added more mileage during an extended postseason run.

Moving Berrios would open up some payroll space for Toronto as well, though in limited fashion.

It's pretty unlikely that the Jays would find a team willing to take the entirety of Berrios' $66MM salary, plus spending capacity might not really be a concern for a Blue Jays club that already shown it is willing to stretch its payroll even further in search of a championship.