PITTSBURGH -- The wait is over. Friday night in Miami, Shane Bieber will make his Blue Jays debut.
Manager John Schneider announced the news ahead of Monday’s series opener against the Pirates at PNC Park, and while the string of “TBD” that follows Bieber still holds plenty of intrigue, the big piece is finally in place.
“You can allow yourself to get pretty excited when you’re adding a guy of that caliber,” Schneider said. “Once you get to know him, he’s the definition of a pro. He fits right in with the guys that we have already in our rotation. He’s really, really smart. He understands what he’s good at and what he’s trying to do. He’s confident right now.”
The dates all line up awfully well from there, too. Depending on how the Blue Jays choose to structure their rotation, Bieber’s next two starts after Miami could easily land against the Brewers the weekend of Aug. 29-31, which would be his home debut, then against the Yankees from Sept. 5-7 in the Bronx.
Since being acquired by the Blue Jays at the Trade Deadline for pitching prospect Khal Stephen, Bieber has finished the final laps of his rehab from Tommy John surgery, and he’s nailed every step. His last time out with Triple-A Buffalo, he threw seven scoreless innings on 90 pitches, his pinpoint control and high-end pitch mix on full display.
For Bieber to immediately return to 100% of his old self is a tough ask, but he’ll now have the final month-plus to get reacclimated and iron out any remaining kinks for the postseason run. Besides, when Bieber has been at his best, he’s been one of the top starters in Major League Baseball. He can dominate, but he can also do it over 200 innings, which he’s hit twice in his career.
“You can put him in the category of some pretty good pitchers where they can dominate areas with different pitches,” Schneider said. “That makes it kind of tough to sit on one pitch. He’s adjusting as he’s going, too, with what he sees from hitters. When you have a guy with good stuff who has really, really good awareness in real time, you get a Cy Young-caliber pitcher.”
Beyond Bieber, though? That’s still a mystery.
Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt will pitch for the Blue Jays this week in Pittsburgh, while Eric Lauer and José Berríos need to be factored in, too. It’s feeling more and more like the Blue Jays will toy with a six-man rotation, at least to start, with one of the main reasons being that none of these starters jump off the page as a clear candidate to move to the bullpen. Sure, Berríos has stumbled lately, but his arsenal is built for starting and every inch of his track record prior to this month points to that.
“We’ve been saying this whole time that up until that day -- up until Friday -- we’re just basing everything on workload and health,” Schneider said, “to see how deep each starter goes in this series. We’ll see how his outing unfolds on Friday, too, and go from there. We have plans in place, but it’s still going to be fluid until Wednesday afternoon.”
It’s another one of those “good problems” that great teams get to talk about, and with Bieber officially part of this team, the Blue Jays just keep getting better.