Blue Jays acquire pitchers in pair of deadline deals
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays added to their pitching at the trade deadline Friday, acquiring starter Jose Berrios from the Minnesota Twins and veteran reliever Joakim Soria from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Berrios is the big acquisition. The two-time all-star has a 7-5 record with a 3.48 earned-run average and 126 strikeouts over 20 starts with the Twins this season.
“We’re thinking about next year too,” said Jays manager Charlie Montoyo. “A guy like Berrios is one of the best starters in baseball. And now we’ve got control over him next year also. So I think that was a great move.”
Toronto parted with two of its top prospects — infielder Austin Martin and right-handed pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson — to land the 27-year-old right-hander from Puerto Rica. Martin ranked 16th on MLB Pipeline’s top prospects list while Woods Richardson was 68th.
Martin was second on MLB’s ranking of Blue Jays prospects while Woods Richardson was fourth. Pitcher Nate Pearson is rated as the prospect in the Jays organization — ninth on the MLB overall list.
Later in the day, Toronto acquired Soria from the Diamondbacks for two players to be named later.
The 37-year-old Soria has six saves this season, with a 4.30 earned-run average in 31 games. An American League all-star in 2008 and 2010, the Mexican righthander has 229 career saves and 822 strikeouts with a 3.06 ERA.
The six-foot, 205-pound Berrios was selected by Minnesota in the first round (32nd overall) of the 2012 first-year player draft.
He was named an American League all-star in both 2018 and 2019.
Berrios, whose has a 55-43 record with a 4.08 ERA over six seasons, joins a Toronto rotation highlighted by Hyun Jin Ryu, Robbie Ray and rookie Alek Manoah along with Steven Matz and Ross Stripling, who started Friday against Kansas City. Manoah went on the 10-day injured list with a bruised back on July 21.
Toronto designated pitcher Tyler Chatwood for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Berrios.
The trades were confirmed in advance of baseball’s Friday afternoon trade deadline, and on the same day the Jays were set to play their first game at Rogers Centre in almost two years.
The Jays had been based in the U.S. for the entire 2020 season and the first four months of the 2021 season due to COVID-19 restrictions at the Canada-U. S. border.
Martin was a key member of the 2019 Vanderbilt team that won the College World Series, and played for the American League in the AllStar Futures Games this month at Coors Field. That AL side was managed by Twins special assistant LaTroy Hawkins.
Woods Richardson, 20, is playing for the U.S. in the Olympics.