Latest Jose Berrios update raises major questions about his Blue Jays future

This was supposed to be a step toward the Blue Jays rotation. Instead, it felt like another warning shot around a pitcher who has not looked like a clean answer for Toronto in quite a while.

Berrios entered the day needing 1 more rehab outing with Triple-A Buffalo after Schneider said Friday’s side session went well and the club wanted to keep building his volume. Toronto also confirmed Trey Yesavage would get Sunday’s big-league start.

That detail matters now more than ever. Even before this latest stumble, the Blue Jays were already telling you something with their actions. Yesavage had the major-league ball, while Berrios was still trying to prove he belonged back in the conversation.

The roughest image came fast. On his second pitch, Berrios gave up a 117 mph home run, the kind of contact that turns a rehab outing into a real discussion about whether a veteran still has enough life left in the tank.

And this was not some isolated bad swing ruining an otherwise clean afternoon. Berrios was already coming off a Buffalo start in which he allowed 5 earned runs over 4 innings, with 2 home runs, 2 walks and only 2 strikeouts. His fastball averaged just 91.9 mph in that outing.

The bigger problem is the trend. Sportsnet noted that the diminished velocity continued a concerning carryover from last season, when Berrios averaged 92.5 mph on his heater after sitting in the 93.6-94 range in earlier years.

Berrios ended the game with 7 ER, 6 hits and 4 walks in 3.2 innings pitched to go along with only 1 strikeout.

At some point, this stops being about patience and starts being about roster truth. The Blue Jays can keep talking about volume and rehab boxes, but the results are not pointing toward a pitcher ready to help a contender right now.

That is why the Yesavage piece keeps looming over this story. Toronto already gave the rookie another start, and every extra turn Yesavage gets makes it easier to picture the club moving forward without Berrios in a real role for now.

To be clear, that does not automatically mean Berrios is finished in Toronto for good. But it absolutely means the version of him the Blue Jays were waiting on keeps getting harder to find.

And when a rehab outing opens with a missile home run and follows another shaky Buffalo line, the question changes. It is no longer when Berrios returns. It is whether the Blue Jays should still be planning around him at all.

For Toronto, that is the uncomfortable part of this whole picture. José Berrios was supposed to be rotation help on the way. Right now, he looks a lot more like a pitcher whose time in the Blue Jays’ plans may be slipping away.