Guardians starter Shane Bieber goes for an MRI on his forearm/elbow space, skipper Terry Francona advised reporters, by way of Mandy Bell of MLB.com and Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Whereas he hasn’t been positioned on the injured listing, he received’t make Monday’s begin as scheduled.
Clearly, the seriousness of the difficulty isn’t but clear. Francona steered that Bieber has pitched via some forearm discomfort for a number of weeks. That the membership wasn’t involved sufficient to ship him for imaging earlier than Friday and hasn’t instantly positioned him on the IL may recommend they’re not overly involved.
If imaging reveals something that’d ship Bieber to the IL, it may have critical ramifications for each the playoff image and the commerce market. Cleveland enters the unofficial second half main the Twins by half a recreation within the AL Central. Doubtlessly subtracting a pitcher who carries a 3.77 ERA via 117 innings would clearly be a success to the roster.
Bieber has additionally been steadily speculated upon as a attainable commerce candidate. Cleveland has plenty of younger pitchers — headlined by Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Gavin Williams — who appear like high quality rotation items. A commerce of Bieber or (to a lesser extent) Aaron Civale may permit Cleveland to land fast assist for a below-average offense whereas backfilling the misplaced innings with a youthful pitcher. Bibee and Williams are within the MLB rotation. Allen was just lately optioned however appears more likely to be recalled with Bieber’s begin being skipped.
The 2020 AL Cy Younger winner is making greater than $10M this season. He’s eligible for arbitration as soon as extra earlier than first hitting the free-agent market over the 2024-25 offseason.
