« Reply #164 on: July 31, 2025, 07:10:33 PM »
Shane Bieber would have been nice.. 
The Toronto Blue Jays acquired Shane Bieber in a trade Thursday with the Cleveland Guardians, betting that the former Cy Young Award winner will be able to quickly bounce back from injury rehabilitation.
The first-place Blue Jays sent right-handed pitching prospect Khal Stephen, a second-round draft pick from Mississippi State, to the Guardians in the trade, which was announced Thursday.
Bieber won the AL Cy Young in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and was consistently one of the league's best starting pitchers before suffering a season-ending elbow injury after two starts in 2024. He re-signed with the Guardians in the offseason for a $10 million salary in 2025 and a $16 million player option in 2026.
Bieber, 30, has not pitched in the majors since undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024 but has made three minor league rehab starts in recent weeks. The right-hander worked four innings in his most recent outing Tuesday with Double-A Akron, striking out seven on 57 pitches, and was expected to rejoin Cleveland's rotation at some point in August.
He is pretty low cost for this season (TOR pays about $3M for the rest of the season) but he has a player option for next season at $16M. I was intrigued by him but there is a lot of risk. There is no guarantee that he will pitch at a major league level this season or next. If he is bad, he picks up his option and you are stuck with him. If he is good, he declines and is a FA seeking big bucks.
He has been pitching in the minors as I understand it so I am sure the scouts have checked him out. He may help TOR win a title or he may not do anything, lot of risk.
Seems like a low risk move to me. Gave up a 2nd round draft prospect for a guy that won the Cy Young a few years ago and just recently turned 30.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2025, 08:51:30 PM by Goldstar88 »

Logged
Quoting Nick from the now locked Ime thread:
Quote
At some point you have to blame the performance on the court on the players on the court. Every loss is not the coach's fault and every win isn't because of the players.