According to former St. Louis Cardinals star and Team Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jose Berrios is set to join the team for the quarterfinal round of the World Baseball Classic.

He made the comments on Tuesday. Puerto Rico is 3-0 inside Pool A and has already advanced to the elimination round. They are finishing up pool play on Tuesday against Team Canada, who enters the contest at 1-1 with one more game to play on Wednesday. Canada is also working to advance out of pool play. The nation has never advanced to the elimination round in any of the previous five WBC tournaments.

Berrios was planning to be on the original roster for Puerto Rico but was left off because of insurance issues related to his end-of-season elbow trouble in 2025. He was put on the injured list at the end of the regular season and did not pitch at all in Toronto's run to the World Series.

He'll be a big boon to Puerto Rico's pitching staff for as long as they are in the rest of the tournament.

Now 31 years old, Berrios is a 10-year veteran of the Minnesota Twins and Blue Jays. A two-time All-Star, he's 108-82 lifetime with a 4.08 ERA.

After a solid season in 2024, he regressed in 2025, going 9-5 with a 4.17 ERA. His ERA was better than his FIP (4.65), suggesting that some regression to the mean is possible, which is bad news for him and the organization. He only struck out 138 batters in 166.0 innings. And the injury news at the end of the season doesn't help.

Berrios is under contract for the next two seasons and there's been talk of the team trading him, but with Shane Bieber injured and Trey Yesavage having to get eased into the season ahead, his role is seemingly important to the organization. 

The best guess is that Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer and Yesavage make up the starting rotation, with Berrios as some kind of "piggyback" for Yesavage as they work to keep his innings down at the beginning of the season.

In addition to Puerto Rico, Team Japan, Team USA, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela have already advanced to the elimination round. Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Italy and others are working to fill out the final three spots in the quarterfinals.

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