Minnesota Twins top prospect, Jose Berrios, pitched another gem for Triple-A Rochester on Thursday. Berrios threw 7 scoreless innings, striking out 7 while allowing just 3 baserunners.
In a interview with Minor League Baseball.com on Thursday, Berrios says he is thinking about the big leagues every time he toes the rubber.
“When I go out there, I’m thinking about being in the Majors,” he said. “I know I need to throw every one of my pitches for strikes if I’m going to do that, so that becomes my focus first and hopefully the Majors comes after.”
General Manager Terry Ryan was in attendance for his start on Thursday and some are speculating that a call to the big leagues could be coming very soon.
Jose Berrios in 17 innings at Triple-A: 1.06 ERA, .143 AVG, 20 strikeouts. Twins are now free to call him up without service time issues.⌛️🐌
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) April 22, 2016
Berrios outstanding today.This is simple: Milone takes addiction to 3-2 counts to long-man role; Berrios debuts Tuesday vs. Cleveland here.
— Patrick Reusse (@Patrick_Reusse) April 21, 2016
The Rochester Red Wings’ rotation has been extremely effective early in 2016: Tyler Duffey (who made 10 starts for the Twins last season) has a 1.72 ERA and former top prospect Alex Meyer has been stifling opponents to a .183 opponents batting average.
Red Wings SPs so far:
Tyler Duffey – 0-0, 1.72 ERA, 1.40 WHIP
Alex Meyer – 1-1, 1.04 ERA, 0.87 WHIP
JO Berrios – 2-0, 1.06 ERA, 0.94 WHIP— Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) April 22, 2016
The Twins’ starting rotation’s numbers are right around league average for quality starts and strikeouts, and while there hasn’t been any speculation about any of the current starters being demoted, Berrios leads a strong supporting cast in Rochester who appear to be one call away if needed.
