Toronto Blue Jays now open to trading Jose Berrios

The Blue Jays signings of Dylan Cease and KBO MVP Cody Ponce have deepened a rotation that already included Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Jose Berrios.

Lefty Eric Lauer and righty Yariel Rodriguez give Toronto a pair of quality swing options, too, and the Jays still have Bowden Francis and former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann (who should be recovered from 2024 Tommy John surgery) in the upper minors as well.

The implication of Ponce's three-year, $30MM contract presumably puts him squarely into the rotation.

Barring a move to a six-man rotation or a spring injury, Toronto will have more starters than rotation places available.

According to Mitch Bannon of The Athletic, injuries can turn a «surplus» into a deficiency pretty quickly, particularly when it comes to pitchers, but the Jays are willing to trade Berrios.

Berrios has been an iron man for the Jays and Twins throughout his big league tenure.

He's started at least 30 games every year since 2018, with the exception of the shortened 2020 season, when he started a full slate of 12 games.

No pitcher has started more games (234) or totaled more innings (1367 1/3) than Berrios in that span of eight years.

Currently, Berrios is guaranteed $24MM in both 2027 and 2028. Both figures would rise by $1MM if the right-hander pitches a combined 300 innings in 2025-26 and another $1MM if he gets to a combined 350 innings.

With 166 frames under his belt in 2025, he'd only need 134 innings in 2026 to secure an additional $2MM and a tougher but plausible 184 innings to tack on yet another $1MM per season.

All of that coalesces to make Berrios a difficult player to trade. He'll pitch next year at 32, so it's hardly out of the question that he rediscovers some of his waning ability to miss bats and/or limit walks and boosts his profile a bit.

It'd be a surprise if the Jays were to find an interested team that was willing to both take on the entirety of Berrios' remaining contract (to say nothing of doing so and surrendering young talent). In all likelihood, the Jays would need to include at least some cash or take back another contract of some note at a different position.

That said, starting pitching is always in demand, and there are always teams looking for creative ways to swap weighty contracts that might better fit their current roster or payroll objectives.