The Toronto Blue Jays’ major trade-deadline addition is finally set for his club debut.
Pitcher Shane Bieber will start on the mound Friday against the Miami Marlins, manager John Schneider said Monday, with the starters for Saturday and Sunday still to be determined.
“You can allow yourself to get pretty excited when you’re adding a guy of that calibre,” Schneider said of Bieber. “Once you get to know him, he’s the definition of a pro. He fits right in with the guys that we have already in our rotation. He’s really, really smart. He understands what he’s good at and what he’s trying to do. He’s confident right now.”
Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young winner, has not pitched in a major-league game since April 2024 with the Cleveland Guardians. He then underwent Tommy John Surgery for elbow pain, which has sidelined him ever since.
The Guardians dealt Bieber to the Blue Jays at the July 31 deadline in exchange for pitching prospect Khal Stephen.
In his last full season two years ago, Bieber went 6-6 with a 3.80 ERA and 1.234 WHIP over 21 starts with Cleveland, with whom he had previously spent his entire seven-season career.
“Excited. I’ve been working towards this for a long, long time.” Bieber told Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae about returning to a big-league mound. “It’s not a surprise, it’s been anticipated, so I’m excited, determined and ready to go.”
Since joining the Blue Jays, Bieber has made three starts with triple-A Buffalo, recording a 2.04 ERA and 16 strikeouts while allowing just two walks over 17.2 innings.
Now 30, the Orange, Calif., native is being counted on to provide ace-like upside to what has been a steady yet unspectacular Blue Jays rotation.
While Toronto’s starters will remain on turn through a series against the Pittsburgh Pirates ahead of Bieber’s debut, it remains unclear how the club will handle its rotation moving forward.
The current quintet of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassit, Jose Berrios, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer all carry some combination of pedigree and performance that could make it difficult for the team to bump one from the unit of starters.
“We’ve been saying this whole time that up until that day, up until Friday, we’re just basing everything on workload and health,” Schneider said Monday. “To see how deep each starter goes in this series. We’ll see how his outing unfolds on Friday, too, and go from there. We have plans in place, but it’s still going to be fluid until Wednesday afternoon.”
Toronto leads the AL East at 73-53, sitting five games ahead of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees after losing Monday’s game 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
