TAMPA, Fla. – On Tuesday afternoon, firmly settled into off-season mode back home in Troy, Mich., Jon Berti went to get an allergy shot. The injection was no big deal, but he was told to give himself about 20 minutes before driving off, so the 28-year-old infielder popped back into his car and sat in the parking lot scrolling through his phone.
Out of the blue the name Gil Kim, the Toronto Blue Jays’ director of player development, popped up on his call display, and Berti wondered what was up. His initial thought was that with his minor-league free agency coming up, Kim might want to touch base about the club’s plans, perhaps even talk about signing him back for next year. "I probably should answer it," he remembered telling himself.
Kim, it turned out, didn’t want to talk about Berti’s minor-league free agency. The Blue Jays needed an infielder for the final four games of the season and he was their guy. It was the last thing Berti expected to hear.
"When he said it, ‘I was like, all right, let’s go,’" Berti said grinning.
About 24 hours later, he was in the starting lineup at second base for the Blue Jays in their home finale against the Houston Astros, the latest twist in the wildest season of an eight-year pro career with 856 minor-league games on the ledger. His first big-league RBIs came on a two-run double in the sixth inning of Friday night’s 7-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
What a ride.
The first taste of big-league life for Berti, an 18th-round pick by the Blue Jays in 2011, came after he returned home having helped the double-A New Hampshire Fishers Cats win an Eastern League championship. He’d been home about a week, recovering from a disjointed campaign that started at triple-A Buffalo before he was traded to Cleveland for cash on April 21.
The Indians assigned him to triple-A Columbus and he appeared in 25 games with the Clippers before they ran out of playing time for him.
He was shopped around and then, June 8, Cleveland sent him back to the Blue Jays, who assigned him to New Hampshire, where he played in 72 games and posted an .897 OPS for the eventual Eastern League champions.
Berti’s season included a ninth inning homer that completed a cycle in an 8-4 win Aug. 28, and on Sept. 14, he went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored and a stolen base to lead the Fisher Cats in an 8-5 win that finished off a sweep of Akron in the Eastern League final.
That was going to be it until Lourdes Gurriel Jr., suffered a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring and left knee soreness shut down Devon Travis for the final week. An MRI revealed wear and tear but no acute injury, and Travis said he’d be playing if the club’s circumstances were different so there are no concerns about it.
Berti is here to fill the gap.
"Absolutely this has been my craziest year, without a doubt," he said. "Being drafted by the Blue Jays, that’s all I’d ever known, I’d never been traded before. To have that happen, and then get traded back, and sent to double-A – crazy. Then to win a championship at double-A was awesome, we had a great team there, and then to cap it off with this is unbelievable."
That it happened for him brought smiles all around the clubhouse.
Berti is so highly thought of that manager John Gibbons described letting him debut Wednesday as one of the highlights from his home finale.
"Everybody in the organization has been a fan of this guy," said Gibbons. "He’s taken his lumps injury-wise, things like that, but everybody loves him, put it that way. He does everything right, plays the game right and he’s been good in the minor-leagues, it’s not like you’re doing the guy a favour. Regardless of what happens in his career from here on out, he can say he got here. But this may open up something for him. It goes a long way when you can you’ve been to the big-leagues. … It always looks good on the resume."
Berti’s presence has certainly provided a feel-good dose to what’s largely a hum-drum final weekend for the Blue Jays. On Wednesday, the team announced Gibbons won’t return in 2019 while Friday, GM Ross Atkins spoke to the coaching staff and granted them permission to speak with other clubs as their fates won’t be definitively decided until a new manager is hired.
Asked if there was anything he’d looking for or hoping to accomplish this final weekend, Gibbons replied: "Nah, not really. I’m kind of glad we’re finishing down here – there’s no chance of a rainout, no doubleheaders, perfect temperature. Seriously. And some of the best clubhouse guys taking care of you. As simple as that sounds, that’s the truth. So I’m not looking for anything in particular. You’d like to try to win three games."
Gibbons also plans to let Russell Martin manage Sunday’s season finale, giving the veteran catcher full authority to make the lineup and handle all the in-game decisions. Martin also gets to handle the final day’s media duties.
Berti, meanwhile, gets to keep enjoying an experience he thought might never come, especially when concussions in 2015, ’16 and ’17 – two on pitches off the head, another via outfield collision – truncated three consecutive seasons.
Though all were similar in severity, the cumulative effect made each recovery more challening.
"Anyone who’s gone through any kind of head injury can relate – it’s very difficult when you wake up in the morning and don’t feel like yourself," said Berti. "Headaches weren’t really the issue for me, you wake up and you feel out of it, just not yourself and it takes time to go away. Luckily, I have tremendous family and friends who helped me get through that."
His perseverance reinforced his status as a gamer beloved by teammates. Over his eight years, the natural second baseman has also played third, shortstop, left field and centre field while contributing in any fashion possible.
On Friday, Berti’s hustle double to centre – five batters after Rowdy Tellez brilliantly turned on a curveball breaking down into his shins for a solo shot – brought home Dwight Smith Jr., and Richard Urena to tie the game 4-4 in the sixth. The Blue Jays took the lead in the seventh when Randal Grichuk delivered a pinch-hit triple with the bases loaded and the bullpen held it.
The big-league experience is some validation for his decision to pursue baseball over hockey in during his senior year of high school. Berti’s dad, Tom, had played in the minors for the Tigers and had told his son that with the potential for a collegiate career, he had to focus on one sport of the other. That led him to a scholarship at Bowling Green University where Danny Schmitz, his uncle who reached triple-A for the Yankees, was head coach.
"Baseball was in my blood," he said. "A lot of my buddies that I played hockey with texted to congratulate me and have been like, ‘We still think you could have made it to the NHL as a goalie.’ Who knows? I was 17 when I stopped playing. We had a really good team that year, we went to the national championship for midget-A, so a lot of good memories playing hockey."
After a wild few days, he’s making even greater memories playing baseball.
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