Guardians fans are about to find out how they feel about Shane Bieber-Blue Jays trade

The last time we saw Shane Bieber in major league baseball, he was walking off the mound at T-Mobile Park as a member of the Cleveland Guardians after tossing six scoreless innings against the Seattle Mariners. 

We know now the next time we’ll see him on a major league mound. And it won’t be as a member of the Guardians. 

On Monday, the Blue Jays announced that Bieber will be making his season-debut for them on Friday in their game against the Miami Marlins. 

Shane Bieber set to make regular season debut for Blue Jays after Guardians trade

Bieber’s time with the Guardians ended at the trade deadline when they traded him to the Blue Jays in exchange for pitching prospect Khal Stephen. While the move marked a bit of an unceremonious end to Bieber’s time with the Guardians, it was a trade that had been more than two years in the making due to Bieber’s contract situation. 

He was eligible for free agency for the first time in his career last winter, which led to him being in the heart of trade rumors in 2023 and ‘24, though the Guardians ended up holding onto him after 2023 and inking him to a one-year, $14-million deal after 2024.

At first it looked like Bieber was going to make his major league debut earlier this year with the Guardians, but he was shut down from his initial rehab assignment due to some elbow soreness. He ended up spending about a month working on getting back to full health before restarting his rehab process, which he carried over to his time with the Blue Jays. 

He’ll be entering the big leagues on the back of a dominant performance on that rehab assignment, as he posted a 1.86 ERA in 29 minor league innings with a 34.6% strikeout rate. His fastball also averaged 92.8 miles per hour, which is around what it's been at since it peaked at 94 mph in 2020. 

He’ll be joining a Blue Jays team that entered play on Tuesday with a five-game lead over the Yankees and Red Sox in the American League East but is 20th in baseball in starting pitcher ERA (4.38).   

It has yet to be determined if the Blue Jays will go with a six-man rotation since they have veteran starters in Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer along with Northeast Ohio product Eric Lauer, but Bieber could end up being the best of the bunch if he’s able to get back to where he was at pre-injury.

Meanwhile, Stephen threw a live BP for the Guardians last week and will throw another one this week as he works his way back from right shoulder impingement.

While it’ll be tough to see Bieber play for another team, the trade has been a win for the Guardians considering they were able to get a solid prospect for a player who wasn’t going to stick around and have rattled off a bunch of wins since they traded him away. 

Now lets just hope they don’t have to face off against him in the postseason.