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Moving On Up: Jose Berrios

The Twins have called up Jose Berrios to make a start on Wednesday. Let's look again at his fantasy impact.

By Jason Hunt
Elsa/Getty Images

While we had speculated on it over the weekend, the Twins are making it official and calling up their top pitching prospect, Jose Berrios.

Berrios will start on Wednesday at home against the Indians and, with Ervin Santana likely headed to the disabled list, could stay in their rotation for a few turns through. Even if Santana only spends the minimum time on the disabled list, the Twins could move on from either of their two struggling starters, Kyle Gibson or Tommy Milone, if they don't start pitching better as well. I wrote about Berrios's potential fantasy impact last month:

Berrios' performance last season didn't necessarily change the potential ceiling of what he can be for fantasy, but definitely moved his floor up quite a bit and increased the likelihood of reaching that ceiling. He showed that the potential to be a mid-rotation starting pitcher for the Twins and a #3 fantasy starter is likely the worst-case scenario for what he can be, assuming good health.
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Long term, Berrios should end up as the leader of that staff, and potentially of your fantasy staff as well. On the strength of his excellent three-pitch repertoire, above-average command, and excellent athleticism, he can be a four-category contributor who provides elite strikeouts across a 200+ inning workload. I wouldn't say that he necessarily can be a top 10 option at the position in part because I'm not convinced yet that he can translate into a 225+ inning workload at that level.

The potential is there for a top 50 starting pitcher for the rest of the season, and I would pick him up in all formats as soon as possible. He can provide high levels of strikeouts (something Twins' pitchers aren't exactly known for), and has the skills to provide solid ratios to go with it. I don't foresee a particularly low innings limit for him, given that he threw 166 innings last season, and with an average of 6 per start the rest of this year would only bring him up to 185.