Future uncertain, Berríos holds own in duel

MINNEAPOLIS -- José Berríos knew what the trade rumors were indicating. He knew that Saturday might have marked his final outing in a Twins uniform. That’s why, he admitted, he joked to his wife before the game that he almost didn’t want to come to the ballpark and pitch, likely in an effort to avoid facing that notion.

When Berríos did show up to Target Field and did take that mound, his opponent, Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval, gave the Twins a sobering reminder of the challenges that lie ahead in life after Nelson Cruz. Minnesota was two outs shy of being no-hit before Brent Rooker broke up the feat with a one-out double in a 2-1 Twins loss.

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And though Berríos’ own outing might have been overshadowed by Sandoval’s flirtation with history, he, too, offered the Twins a reminder of how tough life might be if this was indeed his swan song in the Twin Cities, with seven strong innings marred only by a defensive miscue in the first inning that led to two unearned runs that proved to be the difference in the game.

"It's fun when you face the guy we were facing tonight,” Berríos said. “He's dealing really good. He's throwing the ball really well over the plate. But at the same time, I did my thing. I kept battling. I kept pitching the way we can do it, but at the end of the night, we went out with a loss.”

Battling. That’s what Berríos has done for the better part of his six seasons with the Twins -- and, in particular, in the last four years, when he began his progression to the front-line starter he is today. He didn’t necessarily have his best swing-and-miss stuff against the Angels, but that didn’t get in his way. He settled for drawing soft contact throughout his four-strikeout appearance, retiring 16 of the final 17 batters he faced in seven dominant frames in which he allowed only three hits.

Two of those hits came in the first inning, when a missed-catch error by Miguel Sanó led to the two unearned runs crossing home plate. Beyond the second inning, no Angel breached the hit column.

“He can go out there and truly pitch and work his way through a lineup,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Like we said, pitch to contact a little bit, but mix his pitches where he’s not giving up the hard contact. That’s a way to pitch, too. We don’t see it as much these days.”

The outing lowered Berríos’ season ERA to 3.48 through 20 starts, and he’s been just the kind of workhorse that playoff contenders would love to have on their staff this time of year, having lasted six or more innings in 12 of his last 15 starts dating back to May 2. Before he allowed five runs against the White Sox in his last outing, Berríos had gone 29 starts in a row without giving up more than four runs.

That’s the type of pitching that the Twins, too, could use moving forward -- pitching-starved as they’ll look to be in 2022, with Michael Pineda, J.A. Happ and Matt Shoemaker almost certain to be missing from their Opening Day quintet this season. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey has indicated that the Twins hope to establish '21 as a one-year blip and return to another division push, and Berríos still has a year of team control remaining beyond this season.

That’s why, by all reports, the Twins’ asking price for Berríos has been quite steep ahead of the July 30 Trade Deadline, and why the question of the right-hander’s future lingered so heavily as he traded zeroes with Sandoval on Saturday evening.

“We feel like that group is a big part of our core,” Falvey said of Berríos, Byron Buxton, Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey on MLB Network earlier this week. “So, my job is to always take phone calls and make sure we never turn it off and listen to everything that's discussed from team to team, but for us, it's a really high bar to move guys that we think are going to be a big part of competing again for another American League Central division championship."

As for Berríos, he recently indicated to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he’s looking forward to his upcoming free agency and the payday it will likely entail, which could complicate the idea of negotiating a contract extension -- but he established on Saturday, too, that the idea of leaving Minnesota could also be difficult.

“We are good in Minnesota,” Berríos said. “We are enjoying it so far, our stay here. I want to keep doing that for hopefully six, seven, eight more years."

All that is going to come to a head over the next six days, with Berríos’ rotation slot set to come up next on July 30 -- on Trade Deadline day itself, in St. Louis. By then, he and the baseball world will likely know his fate.

And if this really is it in Minnesota, he sure gave Twins fans one last fun ride -- even if it wasn’t in a victory.

“I've seen José pitch a good bit,” Baldelli said. “He pitches like this a lot of the time. He's a really good pitcher. … He's one of the best pitchers in baseball, and I'll leave it at that.”