Steward Berroa

Steward Berroa

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 178 lb.

• Debut June 23, 2024

• Born June 5, 1999 in Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional D.R.

BR page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Steward Berroa was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as an international amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic on July 4, 2016. He began his professional career the following year with the DSL Blue Jays, then moved up to the GCL Blue Jays in 2018, where he hit .282/.386/.359 in 39 games. He was with the Bluefield Blue Jays of the Appalachian League in 2019, where he fell to .236/.349/.329 in 50 games.

After being forced to sit out the 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, he was with the Dunedin Blue Jays and was named an All-Star in the Low-A Southeast, the name assumed by the Florida State League that year only. He hit .245 in 82 games, but his most striking numbers were 60 runs and 55 stolen bases in 64 attempts. He also played 3 games in AA with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats that season, In 2022, he split his season between the Vancouver Canadians of the Class-A Northwest League. He played 82 games, hitting .211/.315/.382, with 52 runs and 47 steals. He followed that with a very good season in AA in 2023, when he hit .272/.380/.414 in 103 games with the Fisher Cats, although he struggled in 22 games in AAA with the Buffalo Bisons, hitting .156.

In 2024, he began the season with Buffalo in the International League and was off to a great start after 62 games, hitting .295 and having already matched his top output for home runs in a season, which was 7, accomplished in each of the past three years. His slugging percentage of .451 was easily the best of his career at that point, and was leading the circuit with 29 stolen bases. Still, the Blue Jays were not planning on bringing him up to The Show in the immediate future, except for a series of unforeseen circumstances: with Buffalo's top two offensive players that season, Spencer Horwitz and Addison Barger, already in the majors, Toronto starting shortstop Bo Bichette went on the injured list for what was expected to be a short stint. Infielder Orelvis Martinez, the Jays' top position player prospect was called up to fill in for Bo, but after he had made just one start, he was handed an 80-game suspension by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance on June 23rd. The Jays placed an emergency call to Buffalo to have Steward come over to help out over the coming days. He made his debut that same day, taking over in center field in the 8th inning in a 6-5 loss to the Cleveland Guardians after Alejandro Kirk had pinch-hit for CF Kevin Kiermaier. He then came in as a pinch-runner, again for Kirk, against the Boston Red Sox in the 9th inning the next day, but was caught stealing after Kiermaier failed to lay down a sacrifice bunt. It took a return trip to Buffalo and another call-up for him to get his first career hit, as it came on July 27th, a double off Dane Dunning of the Texas Rangers in a game in which he started in left field. He then scored on a sacrifice fly by Horwitz. He ended up playing 28 games for Toronto, hitting .189 with just one extra-base hit, a double. In AAA, he hit .289 in 79 games, with 10 homers and 47 RBIs.

In 2025, Berroa found himself caught in a glut of outfielders competing for jobs both in Toronto and with AAA Buffalo, most of whom like Berroa had some major league experience, but also including Alan Roden and Will Robertson who had torn up the minor leagues and were looking to make it to the Rogers Centre. Berroa got caught out in the crunch and played just 24 games at Buffalo, hitting .195, before being designated for assignment on May 7th. He was picked up by the Los Angeles Dodgers, who assigned him to their own AAA affiliate, the Oklahoma City Comets. He hit .330 in 27 games there, but in spite of that good performance, was DFA'ed again on July 3rd, which led to his being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for cash on July 9th. Ironically, the Dodgers were playing the Brewers at the time, and the transaction was announced in the middle of the game, although Berroa wasn't an active participant, giving he was awaiting word of what the Dodgers would do with him.

Further Reading

• Billy Heyen (The Sporting news): "Dodgers just traded an outfielder to the Brewers in the middle of their game against each other", Yahoo! Sports, July 9, 2025. [1]

Related Sites

• Steward Berroa on mlb.com
• BR Minors page