Blue Jays: Ranking the 10 worst contracts in the AL East

5. Jose Berrios

I know that Jose Berrios should be on this list, I really just don’t know where he should be put. He has had the most confusing seasons in baseball in year one of a big extension with the Jays.

The Jays traded for Jose Berrios at the deadline last season, and he pitched pretty well for them. His numbers were on par with what they were in Minnesota, and it appeared the Jays were going to have a pitcher to anchor the top of their rotation for years to come.

With the signing of Kevin Gausman and the emergence of Alek Manoah, I thought that the Jays were set up to have one of the better rotations in the game for a long time. Gausman and Manoah have been great this year, but Berrios has been anything but great.

The 28-year-old has gone 9-5 with a 5.39 ERA in 24 starts for Toronto. He leads the league in earned runs and home runs allowed. He’s allowed 10.1 hits per nine and 1.8 HR/9. His strikeouts are down as well. Berrios is at an age where he should be entering his prime but is instead declining at a ridiculous rate.

Berrios will have a start like he just had at Yankee Stadium where he delivers 6.2 innings of one-run ball for the Blue Jays, but allows eight runs against the Guardians at home the start before.

To add to the confusion, Berrios has been mostly fine pitching at Rogers Centre. His 4.10 home ERA isn’t great, but it isn’t awful. The 6.82 road ERA is what’s really confusing. That road ERA went way down after the game at Yankee Stadium.

Berrios signed a seven-year $131 million dollar extension this offseason to stay in Toronto. I thought at the time that this would be a bargain considering his age and low AAV. It’s turned out to be the opposite. $18.7 million dollars annually for this Berrios is a disaster thus far.

It’s gotten to the point where Toronto has to consider starting a guy like Ross Stripling in a potential Game 3 of a playoff matchup if they get there. I still believe Berrios can turn it around, as his stuff is too good for him to be this bad. But the turnaround has to happen fast.