Has “La Makina” Returned?
Picture by John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports (Getty Images)
José Berríos is nicknamed “La Makina” which is Spanish for “The Machine”. Recently the Toronto Blue Jays posted on their YouTube a video of Berríos explaining his nickname. It was given to him back in 2011 by his trainer because of his tenacious work ethic when working out.
Video by Toronto Blue Jays on YouTube.com
“La Makina” was drafted in 2012 by the Minnesota Twins and made his Major League debut for the team on April 27th, 2016 at the age of 21. Five years later, Berríos would be a two-time All Star and a front end starter with few mechanical and confidence issues here and there. With the Twins having an abysmal season, on July 30th, 2021, they traded “La Makina” to the Toronto Blue Jays for two prospects, Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson. Martin to this point, is one of the Twins top prospects, but unfortunately has been battling injuries. This year during spring training, Martin suffered a sprained ligament in his right elbow. The shortstop will be beginning a rehab assignment with the Florida Complex League Twins this Monday. Richardson has spent most of his time in Triple-A with the St. Paul Saints. Both last season and this season the Twins have called him up for one game. In the one game this season against the Washington Nationals, he pitched 4.2 innings giving up 5 runs on 7 hits and 5 strikeouts.
Photos by Ed Bailey (Woods-Richardson, Martin), Brad Rempel (Berríos) and Collage from Twinsdaily.com (Getty Images)
Although the Twins were having a bad season, “La Makina” was 7-5 with a 3.48 ERA, 126 strikeouts in 121.2 innings before getting traded. He would keep it up for the rest of the season with the Blue Jays pitching 12 games with a 5-4 record, 3.58 ERA, 78 strikeouts in 70.1 innings pitched. The Blue Jays liked the reliability from “La Makina” to give them quality starts with a good amount of innings pitched so on November 16, 2021 they signed him to a seven year extension for 131 million dollars. What they nor Berríos expected was how he would do during the 2022 season.
Photo by Christopher Katsarov (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Berríos’ pitching campaign for the 2022 season was a huge disappointment. After coming off one of his best seasons his ERA shot up to a 5.23 in 2022. He gave up an American League leading 199 hits and 100 earned runs and a career-high 29 home runs. One of his big bright spots of 2022 is that he was reliable in the sense that he did not miss a start all season. Berríos pitched in 32 games and had 17 quality starts over the season. Blue Jays Manager John Schneider said earlier in this Spring Training, “Last year was tough, but the biggest thing about him was that he was as accountable as anybody I’ve ever seen…he competes with the best of them. He probably felt like he wasn’t pulling his weight, which isn’t really the case either because he had some great outings. But the way he handled it was like everything he does, a total pro.”
Video by Toronto Blue Jays on YouTube.com
Starting off this season Berríos’ first two starts felt very reminiscent of his 2022 season. In his first game of the year against the Kansas City Royals the Royals tagged him for 8 runs in 5.2 innings, while in Berríos’ second game the Los Angeles Angels tagged him for 4 runs in 4.0 innings. That Angels start was on April eighth and two months later Berríos has pitched much better. Since Berríos’ start on April 14th against the Tampa Bay Rays his ERA is a 2.53. He has 7 Quality Starts of the 11 games he has pitched since the 14th. With the offense that the Blue Jays have, Berríos giving up about three runs a game should be well within their range to stay in the game, if not win. Another huge point is that he is not doing this against worse teams. He has pitched against the Rays and the Houston Astros twice, the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates. In those six games, Berríos has a 4-2 record, an ERA of 2.61 over 38 innings with 31 strike outs. “La Makina” might be back, especially if he can keep pitching this way and keep being as reliable as he usually is (I really hope I am not jinxing him). The Blue Jays can really use him especially with Alek Manoah’s demotion to the Minor Leagues.
