Blue Jays' Jose Berrios Problem is getting WORSE

Peter Klein

The Toronto Blue Jays have a serious Jose Berrios problem, and the stats since June 15th prove it 📉. With a 4.81 ERA, 11 HR allowed, and a rapidly declining ability to put batters away, his spot in the playoff rotation is in serious jeopardy   In this video, former Sportsnet 960 host Peter Klein breaks down: 🤔 Why he consistently doesn’t have his "A stuff," and what does that mean for October? 💡 The BOLD solution: Why moving him to the bullpen might be the Jays' best option. 🧠 What a playoff rotation of Gausman, Bieber, and Scherzer looks like, and where Bassitt & Lauer fit in.  Berrios has the most to gain and lose in the next month. Will he pitch his way back into the rotation, or could he even be left off the playoff roster?  Agree or disagree? Let me know your playoff rotation in the comments below!  #BlueJays #JoseBerrios #MLB #TorontoBlueJays #Playoffs #MLBPlayoffs #Pitching #Baseball #SportsAnalysis  🔔 Subscribe for **no-BS baseball takes**: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK4MO2vLadfNnClmLzypW3VNeiO-ql2yA   🎧 Listen on: Apple https://apple.co/49NGm2L | Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM?si=icY7NEBvT7yZadv_JFlT6Q  💬 Follow for live breakdowns: X.com/primetimepk | Twitch.tv/primetimepk  | Kick.com/primetimepk  🔗 Support the Show:   - Tip Jar: https://streamelements.com/couchpotatodiary/tip (fuels more content!)   - Partners: C of Dead http://cofdead403.ca/ | Swift Energy https://www.swiftenergy.gg/?ref=mriusnqm PROMO CODE: PKPrimetime for 25% Off!

Transcript

00:00Jose Barrios is starting to become a problem. It was another tough outing for the Blue Jays starter

00:05against the Texas Rangers, which has me wondering, could he miss the playoffs altogether? Let's

00:10figure out what the Blue Jays can do with their struggling former ace as we get the show rolling

00:15today. Oh, the theme just makes me so happy, but wasn't happy yesterday as Jose Barrios got thumped

00:34again as the Blue Jays fell to the Texas Rangers. And I know what you're saying. Again, he pitched

00:40basically a shutout against the Chicago Cubs a couple of, or the start before this one. And yes,

00:45absolutely. Accurate. 100%. Still had to grind through that one, though. And it has been too

00:50much of the grinding through it for Jose Barrios lately. Looking at the numbers here, since June

00:5615th, Barrios 12 starts. He's 7-3. Okay, we will take that. 63-2 innings. All right, we're doing the

01:05math on that. We're basically right at five innings. It's not fantastic. But okay, that's fine. 17 walks,

01:10fine. 50 strikeouts, all right. 4.81 ERA and 11 home runs. And if you look at FIP, it's not like

01:18this guy's getting unlucky. And if you look at batting average on balls in play, it's not like

01:22this guy's getting unlucky. There isn't a whole lot that you can really hang your hat on with

01:28Barrios right now and say, no, no, no, no, no, it's fine. This will turn around. That is since June 15th,

01:33so two months now, of someone pitching basically at five runs a game. That is not. And Toxic,

01:41bringing it up in the Twitch chat, his velocity is down. And that's a concern as well. Yesterday,

01:46he gives up six runs on 10 hits, two bombs. Admittedly, one of them just kind of kept going

01:51and left. But I mean, that is what home runs do. And just a pair of strikeouts. He hasn't pitched six

01:57innings in his last four starts. And even that game against the Cubs that I talked about, where,

02:02yeah, he pitches, I think it was five and a third shutout innings. It, it was still a battle. He

02:08had like 49 pitches in one of the innings in that game. Like he just, he has had to battle through

02:14not having his A stuff for a little bit. And now we are at a point now, the Blue Jays entering a

02:23really fun matchup against Paul Skeens tonight with a five game lead for top spot in the American

02:28League East over the Boston Red Sox. And all of a sudden now, just five and a half over the New

02:32York Yankees after their sweep over the weekend. But the, we, we are looking now at getting this

02:38rotation ready for the playoffs. And I think we are at a point now, given again, it's been two

02:42months. I think we are at a point now where we have to start asking, should Jose Barrios make

02:49the roster for the post season? Like that seems just infathomable to me that we would be having

02:56this conversation. Like you think back beginning of the year, like, Hey, uh, this seems to be in

03:00first place. And we're going to be talking about Jose Barrios, not making the roster that I wouldn't

03:06have believed any parts of that to be perfectly honest with you at the beginning of the year.

03:10And it's frustrating because when he is at his best, this guy has ACE stuff. We've seen it.

03:16We just haven't seen it this season. And we certainly haven't seen it this season consistently

03:20enough to rely on it when it comes down to post season time. Like it's just, it has been

03:26too inconsistent. It has been too all over the place. And it's like it, the walks, I guess they

03:33haven't been there as much as I thought they would, but it still feels like it's a lot of deep

03:38counts and a lot of grinded out at bats and not being able to put guys away and all of those

03:43frustrations that you would have. And then when the stuff isn't exactly perfect where it needs to be,

03:48it's getting hit hard and it's getting hit quite a bit. So again, just more and more concerns

03:55about what you would do with him. And honestly, even if you were to pitch in a playoff game for

04:00the Blue Jays, I, I don't, if he's starting and we'll get to the other part of that in a second,

04:05but if he's starting, I don't think you're trusting him three times through the order,

04:09right? So you are at most getting 18 batters out of this guy. And if he's perfect at that,

04:16that means he's getting him to the sixth. And odds are that is probably what, 18 batters,

04:22like four innings, five max. That's not what you are looking for out of a starting pitcher right

04:30now. So I just, I don't think when you look at, and we'll go over what the post-season rotation

04:36could look like in a second, but that this is someone who is going to be, if you are putting

04:39him in there, I mean, every playoff game is huge, but this is someone who could be starting in like

04:43elimination games based on how the rotation may play out. So I don't know if I would trust this guy

04:49with my season on the line at this point, he can have electric stuff, toxic pointing out the

04:55velocity is coming down. I don't hate the idea of bringing Barrios out of the bullpen when it comes

05:01down to the post-season. I think if you just let him go out there, grip it and rip it for an inning,

05:06two innings and have him be bordering on a leverage type of a guy. I think that all of a sudden that

05:12VLO comes back up and all of a sudden things have a little bit more life to them. And it just gives

05:17him a bit more of a dynamic feel and gives the bullpen a little bit more of a dynamic feel as

05:23well. Toxic asking as the closer, I don't think I would bring him in for that particular role

05:29necessarily. I think you kind of keep it with Hoffman as the ninth inning guy. Varland, I know

05:36it got rough yesterday for Varland. That game was kind of out of hand. So I don't think he had the

05:41same edge he would if he was coming in a playoff game. So I think you can still have Varland

05:45Dominguez as kind of leverage guys. And Barrios would be a bit more seventh inning for me. And

05:51honestly, sixth and seventh inning. You know, like let's say you have Gosman goes five. And

05:58lights out, but it's a one-run ballgame. I know you were joking, but still. This was something I

06:02was going to bring up anyway. So the idea of putting him in the bullpen, let's say Gosman

06:06goes five really strong innings. It's a one-run ballgame. You bring Barrios in for the sixth and

06:11the seventh. You have Varland and Dominguez that you can kind of play with for the eighth. And you

06:17have Hoffman, excuse me, for the ninth inning. So like, I don't hate how that plays out. Now it's

06:23very righty heavy. You have to throw a lefty in there. And I wish the Blue Jays would have got one

06:28more leverage lefty that you would feel fantastic about. But I, I think I like that one. So if you

06:36look at what the playoff rotation would be, as it sits right now, Gosman would be the game one

06:41starter. We talked about it early in the week. Basically every start he has against high level,

06:47big teams, big moment games, he shows up in a big time way. So he has, I think, earned that spot as

06:53your number one. You are hoping that Bieber is effective enough that he can be a number two.

06:58And then honestly, Scherzer, the way he has pitched and the experience that he has,

07:02I have him as your game three starter right now. There were times in the past that you could have

07:11just three guys and you would have Gosman go one, four, seven, and roll with it that way. He's old

07:17school enough that maybe you could. Teams don't tend to do that anymore. So you would probably need a

07:22fourth starter in this particular situation. And right now I think it's an open competition.

07:27Honestly, the one who's pitching the best for that spot is Eric Lauer.

07:30That's, that's asking a lot. Cause again, we're talking about game four in the division round,

07:35if they get there, but in the division round, that's an elimination game, regardless of what

07:40has happened. You are either playing for your lives or you have a chance to knock the other team out.

07:45And if it's the way the season has gone so far for the Blue Jays, that's probably a road game.

07:50So that's asking a lot. I think of Lauer for his first playoff start. One thing I have kind of

07:55talked about on different platforms and thinking about it here, I, I like the idea if you're going

08:02to, to kind of mix it and match it. I think when you look at those three guys, and we still have a

08:06lot of time to debate this, but when you look at those three guys, Bassett, Barrios, and Lauer,

08:10Barrios has the stuff that is the best fit for the bullpen. Now, Lauer's left-handed,

08:14and we just talked about how there isn't a ton of leverage out there, um, from the left-handed

08:19side. But I, I feel like Barrios has the stuff that is best suited for the bullpen. Lauer maybe

08:28as well. But if you wanted to, for a game four, have Bassett go out there, do a trip through the

08:33order, maybe two, to see on how it, see how it goes, I guess. Um, and then Lauer, flip them around,

08:40come in as the lefty, and he does a couple of innings, or a trip through the order, or something along

08:44those lines. I, I think you mix and match it really well. I think Bassett just has too many

08:48pitches to be effective out of the bullpen, where Barrios, he has one or two that he can really hone

08:52in on, and just, huh, huh, toward home plate. Bassett doesn't necessarily have those. If he pitched

08:58an inning in relief, he might throw all of his pitches once. Um, and that's not necessarily, like,

09:02it's, it's a unique strategy, but I, I think if you put Bassett out there one time through the order,

09:07he is so unique in how he can attack batters, you don't really get that sense, and then, okay, maybe I've

09:12got it figured out, now Lauer comes in, and you have to figure out an entirely new problem, and

09:17we've put our lefty heavy lineup in because we were facing Bassett to start, and now we have to switch

09:21it all around. So, I think that there's some mixing and matching that you could do with that, and then

09:27put Barrios in the bullpen. I do think that Barrios still has time to change the conversation around

09:36this. He has talked about it on, um, radio here in Calgary this week, or last week, I guess now. He has

09:42the most to gain, and probably the most to lose of any in the Blue Jays roster right now, and I think

09:49that that has a lot of weight on him. Like, he could very easily, like, of the three guys that we

09:56just talked about for the playoff rotation, he should be the clear favorite. Like, he should be

10:01better than all of those guys. He just hasn't been. So, this is an opportunity for him to work his way

10:07back into that, but I could also very easily see a world where he doesn't make the playoff roster,

10:14and that was just beyond comprehension to me a little while ago. So, a lot on the line for Jose

10:20Barrios in the next little while. Um, we also had a, a chat from Toxic in, um, in the Twitch chat,

10:27uh, right before we hit the, uh, well, we had already hit go live, but, uh, before the, uh, pre-stream

10:32video was done wrapping up. Um, Toxic asking, I'm sure you're going to answer this, but what should

10:38the Blue Jays do with the rotation with Bieber coming off the IL? So, we talked about what they

10:43should do playoff-wise. Let's now kind of focus in on what this Blue Jays team could do with the

10:49starting rotation with Bieber coming back into, uh, the fold. We'll get to that in just a second,

10:54but first, uh, help spread the news with Couch Potato Diary. Um, hit that share button wherever you

10:58are consuming this, however you are consuming it, whenever you are consuming it, um, hit that share

11:03button and, um, go, uh, you have to do more after that, like, share the link and all that, but, uh,

11:09if you could, that would be really, really helpful. Um, we're coming back to the more regular schedule

11:13around these parts, um, which for me means, uh, a bit, uh, more irregular paycheck, um, and so hoping

11:20to, to grow a whole lot of this over the next couple of months, and, uh, if you guys could spread

11:24the word, that would help me out immensely. So, um, the Blue Jays, we talked about what they might

11:30have to do playoff-wise. What should they do now with potential ace Shane Bieber coming back into

11:38the, not even back, making his debut with the Blue Jays, coming off of the injured list after what

11:42was a very effective run through, um, uh, rehab assignments? I think right now the easy answer

11:50is do a six-man rotation. Um, I think that this is one where we, on the outside, we can have our

11:59thoughts on, oh, just do this. I think you have to talk to all six guys. Be like, hey, are you guys

12:03comfortable with an extra day's rest right now as we kind of work this thing in? I, I could see it

12:10both ways. We have seen guys in the past, like Hyunjin Ryu, basically turned into Sandy Koufax with an

12:16extra day's rest. But there are some other guys who like that, like that routine, like they, every

12:21fifth day, and this throws them off, and so all of a sudden now, um, they're getting just lit up

12:27because nothing is right. And do I even throw right-handed? What, what, what's going on? So,

12:31you, you have to make sure that everyone is comfortable with it. I think the obvious answer

12:34is just a six-man rotation right now. I think there is also a world, given what we just talked about

12:40with Barrios, where all of a sudden, oh man, Jose, sorry to hear about the elbow. It's like, no,

12:45no, no, no, I'm fine. No, sorry to hear about the elbow. And Barrios takes a couple weeks off,

12:53and maybe tries to, to find that, um, hidden velocity that has escaped him, and hidden

12:58effectiveness that has escaped him, and, um, Bieber just right in to that spot. Um, the, the timing

13:06doesn't work exactly right with, um, Bieber coming off of that, the start that he had in Buffalo. I

13:12believe that was Friday. Barrios pitched on Sunday, but an extra couple days to, to,

13:15let, um, Bieber get ready for a matchup, I think would be a pretty good way of doing it. So,

13:21honestly, um, I know, like, you can't fake injuries and all of that. It's August. These guys have been

13:27going for forever, and I, I think we have seen enough. Like, people get put on the injured list

13:35all the time for inflammation. Oh, this guy has inflammation. You know who else does? Every human

13:40being on the planet. So, you can find inflammation anywhere you want on, um, Jose Barrios, and to,

13:47all right, yeah, uh, 10-day deal, and we'll roll with it there. Toxic, with a good question here.

13:52Is the six-man rotation worth it that you get one less bullpen arm? This is where,

13:57uh, this was one of the fights I had for forever, and I just, I accepted that I lost it.

14:02I, personally, think you should be able to manage a seven-person bullpen. I, like, oh,

14:11no, we've lost a bullpen arm. Fine. One of the dudes who went out there after it was 10-4

14:16against Texas, they go down. Like, you have guys who are there specifically to pitch right before

14:22the backup catcher comes in to pitch in ballgames. I, I think you should be able to manage,

14:28I think you should be able to manage a, like, six-person bullpen. Um, but I, and I get very

14:35different, but, um, like, video games and stuff like that, but even, um, like, I, I use them just

14:40to figure out how, how do I, like, all these things set up? And I understand, um, humans and video

14:45games different, but I like closer, setup, setup, righty middle reliever, lefty middle reliever,

14:52long reliever. That's it. All I need. If the long reliever could be left-handed, that would probably

14:57help me out a lot. Um, I have accepted no one's going to do that, and all these teams want as many

15:03relief pitchers as they possibly can to be able to mix and match and do all of these things. You

15:08should be able to manage a bullpen with one less arm out there. I firmly believe the Blue Jays do not

15:16have an entire bullpen of Major League Baseball caliber arms right now. You could send one of them

15:22down. So, I, I understand that the, the modern, modern strategies are, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

15:28all the bullpen arms you can get. I, Schneider has been amazing at managing the bullpen this year. I

15:34think if you give him one less bullet in the chamber to be able to bring in a former Cy Young

15:38winner, he should be able to handle that. I'm not mocking the question, I am just mocking the

15:42general premise that we needed 10-man bullpens and all that stuff when you had, like, two pinch

15:46hitters on the bench. Um, absolutely hated that when that was happening before they implemented

15:51the rules that they did. But, uh, as far as the weekend goes, like, you don't love how yesterday

15:57went, but you love the battle anyway, right? And we are at a point now where, like, they're five

16:02games up and it's August 18th. Like, they're, time is running out. Um, not saying that, uh, that they

16:09can't be caught. They have a couple series, they have a series with Boston coming up that's going to

16:12be rather important down the stretch. But, like, the, I think you can take moral victories when you've

16:19already won the series. The bats were tremendous again for a couple of games and even this last

16:25one, like, they're down 8-1. It feels like they're out of it, but then a couple hard hit balls and a

16:29bomb and all of a sudden they're right back in it. Like, this team just does not stop and I love that

16:34about them. So, I, I, again, the weekend and overall positive even though the Yankees gain a game,

16:40um, and the Blue Jays stay five games up on the Boston Red Sox. Uh, we are going to shift gears

16:47now. So, but, if you have anything you want to talk about Blue Jays-wise in the chat, uh, you can

16:52let me know and, uh, we will, uh, bounce back to it. Or, if you're watching this after, let me know

16:58your thoughts in the comments. Uh, we are streaming this one live on a few different platforms. Uh,

17:03the next live stream is going to be tomorrow at 10 a.m. Gonna be back on here hopefully talking about

17:08the Blue Jays win over Paul Skeens and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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