Blue Jays' 2023 José Berrios playoff decision might be influencing wild 2024 trend

You probably remember where you were last October when Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider emerged from the visitor's dugout at Target Field to remove starter José Berrios in the fourth inning of a win-or-go-home Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.

It was a jaw-droppingly absurd decision. Pulling Berrios, who had cruised through three innings against the Minnesota Twins, after just 47 pitches (32 strikes) was just another in a long line of emotionally scarring incidents for Blue Jays fans. The Jays lost the game and went home.

While the fallout from that postseason debacle spilled over into the spring, perhaps Schneider and the Blue Jays learned something from that mind-boggling, ill-conceived decision. As it turns out, the Blue Jays are leading Major League Baseball with the top three pitch counts this season.

Blue Jays' 2023 José Berrios playoff decision might be influencing wild 2024 trend

As Thomas Nestico recently pointed out, the Blue Jays have the three longest starts in 2024, based on the number of pitches. Kevin Gausman leads the way with a 118-pitch start, while Bowden Francis and his near no-hitter are right behind him with 117 pitches. Chris Bassitt rounds out the trio with a 115-pitch outing in April. Here's the full leaderboard on Baseball Reference.

While Schneider and the front office were lambasted at the time of that boneheaded decision to pull Berrios at just 47 pitches, and still are to this day, it seems they learned their lesson. Or did they?

Perhaps the reason that the Blue Jays are dominating the top of the leaderboard is that the rest of the league has changed how it's managing starting pitchers this season. Five starting pitchers across MLB threw 119 pitches or more in 2023, ranging from 119 up to 131. The Jays' max pitch count was 115.

Last year, Blue Jays starters averaged the second-most pitches per start with 91 and logged the third-most starts between 100-119 pitches. This season, they're averaging the fifth-most pitches per start with 88 but still have the third-most starts between 100-119.

The Blue Jays, it seems, haven't changed much of anything about their processes in determining how long to let their starters go into games. Ironically, they're the ones now pushing the envelope.