Shane Bieber had a 62-32 record over seven seasons with the Cleveland Guardians, winning the 2020 AL Cy Young Award.Godofredo A. Vásquez/The Associated Press
Shane Bieber drove from Cleveland to Toronto on Friday. After a stop at the Canadian border where he was asked to present work documents, he found his way to Rogers Centre and began to meet his new teammates.
Later in the afternoon Bieber threw a bullpen session, collaborated with pitching coach Pete Walker and smiled his way through an introductory briefing with journalists outside the Blue Jays clubhouse.
A little more than an hour later Toronto welcomed the Kansas City Royals to town for the opener in a three-game series.
Blue Jays take calculated risk in deadline acquisition of Shane Bieber
On Thursday, the only major-league club Bieber had ever played for sent him to Toronto ahead of the league’s 6 p.m. trade deadline. The Guardians swapped the American League’s former Cy Young Award winner for a prospect.
In his case it’s not so much about him having fallen but the question of if he will return as one of baseball’s most elite right-handers.
“Being around the game a lot I’ve seen guys come and go on deadline day and I understand the situation,” Bieber, who is 30 and had a 62-32 record with Cleveland over seven seasons, said. “I wasn’t shocked.”
Bieber last pitched in a big-league game 16 months ago. He underwent Tommy John surgery and has begun rehab assignments in the minors. On Sunday, if all goes well, he will pitch in Buffalo for the Triple-A Bisons. There is still no timetable yet for his return to the majors.
During the operation a surgeon removed a ligament from inside his right elbow and replaced it with a tendon from elsewhere on his body.
“It has been a long year and a half,” Bieber said. “I picked the brains of a lot of guys who have gone through surgery like that. It’s unfortunate how common it is but at the same time the doctors are more well practised.
“It does take a while to come back but a lot of guys come back stronger than before.”
That possibility is why the Blue Jays took a flyer on him. If he is even close to his former self it will be a huge win for a team with a deep pitching rotation that already sits first in the American League East.
“It’s pretty exciting,” manager John Schneider said while seated in his office a few metres from a mood light. Everything is rainbows and sunshine right now with Toronto. “He’s a guy with legitimate credentials. This is high risk, high reward.”
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The club’s other deadline-day acquisitions also were at the ballpark and seemed to enjoy the media attention. Relief pitcher Louis Varland, obtained from Minnesota, took a seat in the dugout and talked about the past two days.
“Yesterday was kind of crazy,” Varland said. The 27-year-old right-hander appeared in 51 games for the Twins and had a 2.02 earned-run average. “There were a lot of phone calls and a lot of moving parts. It kind of blindsided me.”
Varland said he got a phone call from Toronto while he was in a room with teammates.
“I got up and left the room and when I came back I was kind of sad,” he said. “This was new for me. It was the first time I’ve been traded.”
Varland will work out of the back end of the bullpen.
“I know he is not a household name, but he has got electric stuff,” Schneider said.
Ty France, who was also picked up from Minnesota, will be used as a designated hitter and will occasionally spell Vladimir Guerrero at first. France was in the lineup as the DH on Friday. Daulton Varsho was back in centre field after sitting out a significant number of games with an injury.
Schneider said he has already talked to his starting pitchers about the possibility of adding Bieber to the rotation.
“They get it,” the manager said. “They are a veteran group and all deserve to start. But you are talking to adults. They’re not a bunch of kids.
“This is a good problem to have. There is not a glaring person who deserves to be demoted.”