Blue Jays name Opening Day starter for 2024 regular season

The Toronto Blue Jays will be starting their 2024 season how they ended their last one — with Jose Berríos getting the start.

Today, the team announced that the 29-year-old Puerto Rico native will be their starter on Opening Day, when the Jays travel to Tampa Bay on March 28 to take on the Rays.

Our Machine On The Mound 🦾#OpeningDay Belongs To José! pic.twitter.com/lGATBSPDjF

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) March 19, 2024

Berríos had an 11-12 record with an ERA of 3.65 and 184 strikeouts in 32 appearances in 2023. He also won his first Gold Glove award that year.

In Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Minnesota Twins, Berríos was infamously pulled in the fourth inning despite having given up just three hits to that point. With Toronto ultimately losing the game and ending their season on that day, the early pull of Berríos became one of the key talking points for Blue Jays media and fans alike throughout the offseason.

Kevin Gausman was likely Toronto’s first choice for the Opening Day slot, coming off a 2023 campaign where he finished in the top-3 for American League Cy Young voting.

But dealing with shoulder fatigue, it seems that Gausman might miss his first few starts of the 2024 campaign to avoid further injury.

“We just want him to be good, and if that means 30 starts as opposed to 32, we’ll be pretty happy with that,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said last week.

Berríos was originally acquired at the trade deadline in 2021 from the Twins, in a high-profile deal that saw the Jays trade away top prospect Austin Martin, whom they selected fifth in the 2020 MLB Draft.

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