Minnesota Twins ace Jose Berrios has the highest fWAR of any starting pitcher in baseball right now. In fact, he is the only pitcher in the majors to reach 1.0 to this point.
The 23-year-old second-year pitcher had one great start and one not-so-great start heading into his third outing of the season on Thursday night, and against the light-hitting Chicago White Sox he pitched 7 shutout innings and gave up just 3 hits with 11 strikeouts to no walks. Here is a taste of what's in his arsenal.
Jose Berrios, Disgusting 84 mph Curveball. 😳 pic.twitter.com/BgLOyhxhlW
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 13, 2018
That is just no fun to hit against.
In 20.2 innings this season, Berrios has a 2.18 ERA, 1.63 FIP and 2.26 xFIP, with 24 strikeouts and 1 walk. This is coming off a 2017 rookie campaign in which he went 14-8 in 25 starts. On his way to a 3.89 ERA and 3.84 FIP, he posted 8.59 strikeouts per nine (K/9) with a strikeout percentage of 22.6%. That strikeout percentage is up to 32.0% this season.
Berrios is unlikely to continue walking just 1.3% of batters faced, as he has so far this year, but he appears to be building upon the success of 2017, which makes him an easy arm to believe in moving forward.