Bieber Solid in Buffalo Start

By: Brian Frank

Shane Bieber took the mound for the Bisons on Sunday afternoon for his first start in the Blue Jays’ organization. The 2020 Cy Young Award winner was acquired by Toronto from the Cleveland Guardians at last Thursday's MLB trade deadline for minor-league pitching prospect Khal Stephen. Bieber is currently nearing the end of his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery performed in April of last season.

“I feel really good,” Bieber said after the outing. “I feel excited to continue to progress, excited to be kind of in a fresh situation. That always injects a little bit of excitement into you. So, everything's going well and body, arm, mind, everything feels great.”

The 6’3” right-hander worked five innings for the Herd, allowing two earned runs on five hits and one walk, while fanning six batters. He fired 62 pitches, 47 for strikes. His fastball sat around 93 to 94 mph.

“It's nice to feel good,” he said of his velocity. “I trust that it's going to be there, and it has been there. So I feel great. I just need to continue to execute and refine some things. But all in all, I think I'm in a really good spot.”

Bieber won the American League pitching triple crown in 2020. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles

After throwing 59 pitches in his last rehab start for Cleveland’s Double-A affiliate, the Akron Rubber Ducks, Bieber said he felt strong at the end of his outing with Buffalo.

“I felt great,” he said. “I felt like I was kind of just getting into the flow of things. I'm happy to feel that. I think that's a great sign. I wasn't overthrowing, and the velocity was holding and all in all, I think I'm really happy with how today went. Like I said, always room to improve and things to get better at, but I’m keeping everything in perspective and looking at it objectively. Very happy with today.”

Bieber became the eighth Cy Young Award winner to pitch for the Bisons at some point in their career, joining Max Scherzer, Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey, Dwight Gooden, and Fergie Jenkins. He’s also the third hurler to take the mound for the Herd after winning the Cy Young, joining Gooden and Scherzer.

The two-time All-Star looked particularly strong in the early going, when he stuck out the first two batters on just six pitches. He then fired a strike to Jared Young, before allowing a ground ball single up the middle.

“Yeah, I was going for it,” he chuckled when asked if he was aware of a potential immaculate inning (three strikeouts on nine pitches). “It was a called backdoor cutter to Young. I just had to throw it down the middle, and, you know, he had a base hit up the middle and put a good swing on it. But I was definitely going for that.”

In the second inning, Bieber walked the leadoff batter, Yonny Hernández, and then balked him to second base. Hernández eventually came around to score on an Omar De Los Santos single.

When asked what hurdles he still has to overcome to get back to the big-leagues, the 30-year-old replied with a laugh, “Don't balk the runner over to second in the second inning. But might as well get it out of the way down here, right? So, yeah, for me, I just try and keep my head down and continue to put one foot from the other and today was a great step. So we’ll do it again five days from now.”

The only other run the Southern California native allowed was on a solo home run to Luke Ritter in the third inning.

Despite his strong outing, another minor-league start might be in the cards for Bieber in order to build up his pitch count further before joining Toronto’s rotation.

“We'll see,” he said. “I'll talk with the medical staff and the major league staff, and we'll make a decision as a collective group.”

Despite a valiant ninth-inning comeback, where they scored a pair of runs and got the potential game tying run to second base, the Bisons fell to the Mets 4-3. However, the biggest takeaway from the day was that Toronto’s new potential top of the rotation playoff starter feels healthy on the mound.

“I continue to progress,” Bieber said. “I feel better throughout my outings and in between innings. I was happy with how today finished up. All in all, just kind of dissecting the outing, there's some things to clean up. Obviously, leadoff walk in the second, balk them over a second, basically the four hole got a pretty good swing on a heater in the third. But all in all, I felt really good. I’ve got to keep things in perspective. It's been a whirlwind of a 72 to 100 hours – and I’m happy with how this day went for sure.”