{"id":263706,"date":"2025-11-05T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/263706\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T06:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:30:10","slug":"shane-bieber-to-exercise-player-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/263706\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Bieber To Exercise Player Option"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Bieber<\/a> has surprisingly exercised his $16MM option to remain with the Blue Jays, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>. He\u2019s passing on a $4MM buyout, so he\u2019ll pick up an extra $12MM to remain in Toronto for a second season.<\/p>\n

The decision removes one of the better starting pitchers from the free agent market. Bieber was midway through a Tommy John rehab when he hit free agency for the first time in his career last offseason. He re-signed with the Guardians, then the only organization he\u2019d known, on a two-year deal that allowed him to opt out after season one. Bieber was on a minor league rehab assignment when the trade deadline rolled around. Cleveland, then believing they were out of contention, traded him to Toronto for pitching prospect\u00a0Khal Stephen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays made one of the more fascinating risk-reward decisions of the deadline. They surrendered a legitimate prospect for a potential rental starter who hadn\u2019t pitched in an MLB game in more than 14 months. It worked out well, as Bieber returned as the #3 caliber starter he had been with the Guards in 2023. He made seven regular season starts and turned in a 3.57 earned run average across 40 1\/3 innings. Bieber fanned an above-average 23.3% of opposing hitters against an excellent 4.4% walk rate. He looked fully healthy and averaged 92.6 MPH on his four-seam fastball \u2014 his best velocity since 2021.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bieber added another 18 2\/3 frames over five postseason appearances. He pitched pretty well overall, allowing nine runs (eight earned) with 18 punchouts against six free passes. Bieber did surrender three playoff home runs, including the World Series-deciding\u00a0Will Smith<\/a> longball in extra innings of Game 7. It ended in disappointment, but Bieber was generally effective for the Jays both in the regular season and October.<\/p>\n

That seemingly positioned him well for a return free agent trip this winter. Bieber turns 31 in May. While he\u2019s unlikely to recapture the ace form that earned him the AL Cy Young award in the shortened 2020 season, he\u2019d certainly have gotten plenty of interest as a mid-rotation starter who is still young for a free agent. A nine-figure deal didn\u2019t seem entirely out of the question. At the very least, he looked set for a higher average annual value on a two- or three-year guarantee that allowed him to opt out after the first season.<\/p>\n

The $12MM difference between the option price and the buyout is well below market value for a pitcher of Bieber\u2019s caliber even if he were determined to take a one-year deal. As shown on MLBTR\u2019s Contract Tracker<\/a>, that\u2019s less than Walker Buehler<\/a>,\u00a0Justin Verlander<\/a>,\u00a0Max Scherzer<\/a>,\u00a0Alex Cobb<\/a>,\u00a0Charlie Morton<\/a> and\u00a0Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a> pulled on free agent contracts last winter. It\u2019s a few million dollars above the guarantees signed by Michael Soroka<\/a> ($9MM) and Michael Lorenzen<\/a> ($7MM).<\/p>\n

Bieber will nevertheless lock that in and try to help the Jays get over the top in 2026 after their heartbreaking near miss. Only his camp knows the specific reasoning behind that decision. Speculatively speaking, it\u2019s possible he\u2019s hopeful of hammering out a longer-term deal with the Jays. He\u2019s clearly comfortable with the city and the organization. However, there hasn\u2019t been any reporting to suggest the sides have opened extension talks, much less made significant progress. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s impossible that such conversations have taken place behind the scenes, but the option decision is a huge development for the team.<\/p>\n

Toronto had been facing the free agent departures of Bieber, Max Scherzer<\/a>\u00a0and Chris Bassitt<\/a> in the rotation. They\u2019re balancing their starting pitching needs against their desire to retain\u00a0Bo Bichette<\/a>, who could command a $200MM+ contract that makes him the second highest-paid player in the free agent class. Bieber voluntarily locking in a below-market salary to rejoin Kevin Gausman<\/a>,\u00a0Trey Yesavage<\/a> and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos<\/a> is a major boost. They\u2019ll still look to add at least one more starter, but this could give the Jays more flexibility to make a competitive offer to Bichette and\/or upgrade the late innings.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of John Sokolowski, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Bieber has surprisingly exercised his $16MM option to remain with the Blue Jays, reports Jon Heyman of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,33136,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-263706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-shane-bieber","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}