Ominous News Could Await for Blue Jays & Jose Berrios

March 16, 2026


Tuesday is the big day for Jose Berrios. He's having an in-person meeting with Dr. Meister to determine the status of his ailing elbow. Meister is one of the noted orthopedic surgeons in treating baseball injuries, particularly specializing in Tommy John surgery. 

That obviously does not sound like good news, as noted by Jays beat writer Keegan Matheson.

"Players do not visit (Dr. Meister) for fun, Ok? (But) This is, ideally, routine... So, if you're the Blue Jays, you've gotta hope that this is just inflammation that you slowly get out of there."

Berrios did have another bout of inflammation in his elbow last season, but, according to manager John Schneider, this is "different inflammation from last year."

"Now, in back-to-back years, within about six month period, he's gone through a dip in performance, he's had one type of inflammation, now he's had two types of inflammation," said Matheson. "These things tend to happen this way. They build up and build up. This is going to be really interesting. There's going to be a big news update here in the next couple of days. But Opening Day has gotta be out of the question."

The interesting thing here is that the MRI that showed the inflammation was only done in order for Berrios to get insurance coverage to go play in the World Baseball Classic for Puerto Rico. It was that MRI that flagged a problem, even though Berrios wasn't experiencing any pain, said Matheson. 

Fortunately, the Jays have plenty of depth in the rotation now, after the re-signing of Max Scherzer earlier this month. Shane Bieber has also had a very slow ramp-up this spring, and we already know he'll be starting the season on the injured list and won't be ready for a while. 

We'll keep an eye on this, and let you know what the dreaded orthopedic opinion turns out to be.

Photo: © Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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