Jose Berrios hopes his time with Twins is almost here

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Mike Quade was the manager of Class AAA Vancouver in 1999. Among the pitchers on his staff were prospects Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. All were exceptional talents who became multi-time All-Stars. Zito and Hudson won rookie of the year awards. Zito won a Cy Young.

Quade managed last season at Class AAA Rochester. On June 30, he was handed a young righthander named Jose Berrios.

After watching Berrios for two months — two months that, at the end, made the Twins think hard about calling him up to the majors — Quade was reminded about what top-end talent looks like.

"Hudson, Mulder, Zito. They were all good early," said Quade, who went on to manage the Cubs for part of 2011 and all of 2012. "That just doesn't happen. I think [Berrios] has the talent with all those guys. This kid has a chance to be really, really good."

Berrios, 21, will be one of the more closely watched pitchers in camp this spring while he makes his case to open the season on the major league roster. The odds are not in his favor, as the Twins have experienced options in front of him. But Berrios might have more talent than any of them.

His fastball has been clocked in the mid-90s, and he has a sharp-breaking curveball. In the past couple of seasons, he's thrown his changeup more, and now it's an additional weapon in his pitching repertoire.

"That changeup, from the right side, reminds me of Johan Santana's, the action that it has," said Stu Cliburn, the pitching coach at Class AA Chattanooga last season, where Berrios began the season.

In 27 starts between Chattanooga and Rochester, Berrios was 14-5 with a 2.87 ERA, securing his status as one of the top prospects in baseball. MLB.com ranks him as the 19th-best prospect as well as the prospect with the best control. ESPN ranks him 26th, and Baseball America has him at 28.

Berrios walked 38 batters and struck out 175 last season in 166 ⅓ innings. That's 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings. The Twins haven't had a starter with a strikeout rate that high since Francisco Liriano (9.8) in 2012.

While some minor league experts are concerned about Berrios' flat plane on his fastball — and Quade said Berrios needs to keep the ball down in the zone more — his willingness to change speeds and hit corners draws praise. Twins officials say he's also exceptional at fielding his position and holding runners.

"He has good poise for a young man," said Cliburn, who will coach at Rochester this season. "He's got mound presence. He's very calm. He doesn't let too many things bother him. He's a quiet young man anyway. Doesn't have a lot of emotion, but that fire and drive is inside of him when he goes out there on the mound. For a young kid that age, that's pretty impressive."

Twins righthander Tyler Duffey, who played with Berrios at Class A, AA and AAA, has seen him take control of games.

"He's got that little bit of swag when he goes out there," Duffey said. "You can see in the games when he pitches. He gets on a roll that second and third inning, and it's, 'Good luck to you.' "

It was General Manager Terry Ryan's decision not to call Berrios up in September, citing the innings pitched at such a youthful age as a reason to be cautious.

"When they tell me the news [of no September call-up], they said, 'After the next start you will be shut down,' " Berrios said. "I was a little bit disappointed, but I thought about the situation and respect the decision by Terry Ryan. So I said, 'I'll rest now and be ready for the next season.' "

Berrios' offseason was brought to you by Twitter and Periscope, as his workout sessions in gyms — plus running and agility drills on Fridays on a beach in his native Puerto Rico — were regularly posted. In January, he mixed in his bullpen sessions.

The Twins rotation very easily could consist of righthanders Phil Hughes, Ervin Santana, Kyle Gibson, Tyler Duffey and Tommy Milone, with righthanders Ricky Nolasco and Trevor May in the bullpen. Berrios' goal, of course, is not to open the season in Rochester.

"I don't know how good of a spring he'll have to have or what he'll have to do to get to Baltimore [on Opening Day]," Twins manager Paul Molitor said, "but I don't have to worry about that now. But I'm going to be watching it closely because we've got a lot of guys that are fighting for at least the bottom part of the rotation. I don't really have people in front of people. It's just open eyes, open mind and we'll try to figure it out.''