José Berríos will be sidelined for at least a couple of months and potentially for more than a year after making the decision to undergo elbow surgery.
Not only does Berríos have a stress fracture in his elbow, he has some loose bodies in the area, and there may be “some ligament stuff going on,” according to Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider. Dr. Keith Meister will operate on Berríos Wednesday, at which point the nature of the operation will be determined.
“They’re going to figure that out when they’re actually in there,” Schneider said. “See what they see when they get in.”
Best-case scenario, Berríos could miss just a couple of months and return later this season. Schneider pointed to Tigers ace Tarik Skubal as an optimistic comparable, noting that the two-time Cy Young winner has resumed playing catch just a couple of weeks after surgery.
Yet with the possibility of ligament replacement surgery still being considered, much longer timelines remain in play. For instance, Tommy John surgery typically comes with a 12-18 month recovery window.
It’s been a puzzling sequence of events for Berríos, who arrived at spring training healthy and started building up normally. But an MRI in March revealed a stress fracture, leading to a shutdown period. He then resumed throwing and progressed as far as triple-A before a second shutdown led to consultation with the likes of Dr. Meister.
Asked how he reflects on that process, Schneider deferred to the expertise of those specialists.
“Doctors know more than me, you know what I mean?” he said. “Giving him the green light with that and at the time, him saying, ‘I’m feeling normal,’ gave us the okay to keep going. And then as soon as a doctor says, ‘stop going,’ you stop.”
Berríos wanted to pitch, of course, but he was careful to follow protocol along the way.
“There’s always risk with pitchers, right?” the manager said. “That’s risk that both he and we accepted when we said ‘keep throwing.’”
Without Berríos, the Blue Jays’ already depleted starting pitching depth takes a significant hit. Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber are all on the injured list, too, while Eric Lauer struggled before being designated for assignment.
The Blue Jays don’t have a fifth starter at the moment, though right-hander Spencer Miles is taking on more innings and left-handed reliever Adam Macko was recently added to the team’s taxi squad to help provide depth. Making substantial trades this time of year tends to be challenging as there are typically fewer sellers and higher prices.
As they play 17 games in 17 days, the Blue Jays will soon need answers in that final rotation spot, but all that’s clear for now is that Berríos won’t be a part of that solution for a while.
“He’s pissed,” Schneider said. “He’s frustrated … So I feel bad for him.”
