OAKLAND, Calif. — When the Cleveland Guardians hired Stephen Vogt in early November, the new manager wasted no time in scheduling his first player visit. Vogt, in Arizona for the general managers’ meetings, enjoyed an hourlong lunch in Phoenix with Shane Bieber, who said the two “could have talked forever.”
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They dismissed offseason trade rumors and uncertainty about the pitcher’s future. They instead dreamed up a 2024 season for Cleveland’s ace, a campaign that would showcase the dominance he exhibited a few years ago, before shoulder and elbow injuries interfered with his prime.
And, well, this is precisely what they envisioned.
In his fifth consecutive Opening Day start, Bieber breezed through six innings in a lopsided 8-0 win against the Oakland Athletics. He piled up 11 strikeouts. He didn’t permit a runner to safely advance past second base. He unleashed fastballs with more oomph. He spun his customarily elusive breaking balls. He even implemented a new changeup, a pitch he said he’s been workshopping for a decade.
“He’s an ace among aces,” catcher Austin Hedges said.
Bieber became the sixth pitcher in major-league history to tally 10 or more strikeouts in at least three Opening Day starts, joining Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer, Pedro Martinez, Félix Hernández and Bob Gibson. That’s three Hall of Famers, a future lock for Cooperstown (Scherzer) and another pitcher (Hérnández) who will join the ballot this year. Decent company.
A heckuva start to the 2024 campaign, Biebs. 👏pic.twitter.com/yedIoKWEgS
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) March 29, 2024
A double-digit strikeout total used to be a guarantee anytime Bieber took the hill. Last year, though, he didn’t exceed nine strikeouts in any of his 21 outings.
More alarming, he surrendered a ton of hard contact in 2023. His average exit velocity allowed (91.6 mph) ranked in the bottom 2 percent of all pitchers. His hard-hit rate allowed (47.8 percent) ranked in the bottom 3 percent.
On Thursday, the average exit velocity for Oakland’s hitters against Bieber was 88.4 mph, which would match last year’s league average. During his Cy Young Award-winning season in 2020, Bieber allowed an average exit velocity of 89.3 mph, the best mark of his career. His 43 percent whiff rate Thursday was better than any whiff rate he recorded last season.
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Granted, it’s one start. He stymied an A’s lineup that doesn’t exactly make an opposing pitcher tremble.
But this is a contract year for Bieber. There’s a lot at stake for a 28-year-old who, with a strong season, could land a nine-figure payday. He was motivated enough over the winter to routinely stop by the Driveline Baseball facility in Scottsdale, Ariz., to clean up his mechanics and tweak his arsenal.
The result is improved velocity. His fastball averaged 92.3 mph and topped out at 93.7 mph, the hardest pitch he’s thrown in a game since September 2022. The result is a new curveball grip he can throw with more conviction. He had decreased his reliance on the pitch each of the last two seasons.
And the result is, at last, a changeup he’s starting to trust, one he throws harder than he did in the past. Matt Blake, the New York Yankees pitching coach and a former Cleveland pitching coordinator, urged Bieber to develop a changeup when Bieber was silencing hitters at Double A.
Now in his seventh big-league season, Bieber indeed might have another offering to deploy. He said he’s still “learning it (and) establishing it but having a lot of fun with it.” Hedges said it resembles a splitter or a sinker, a pitch slightly slower than his fastball that fades as it reaches the catcher’s glove.
“After a decade,” Bieber said, “I’ve given up trying to take velocity off of it.”
His patience paid dividends. It is patience, right?
“Yeah, or just stupidity for a decade,” Bieber quipped. “It’s been a process.”
Bieber stressed his curveball and slider will stay “my bread and butter,” but the changeup diving in a contrasting direction arms him with something else for hitters to consider. The more unpredictable he can be, the better.
“We’re not overdoing the curveball anymore,” Hedges said. “We’re not overdoing the slider. He has some velocity and some ride to the fastball now. We’re just pitching. We’re just waiting for the hitter to tell us what to throw.”
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There are plenty of options.
Bieber has tweaked his arsenal each year he’s been in the league.
Here was his pitch usage as a rookie in 2018 …
Fastball: 57.4%
Slider: 22.7%
Curveball: 16.0%
Changeup: 3.8%
Here was his pitch usage during his award-winning season in 2020 …
Fastball: 37.8%
Curveball: 26.3%
Cutter: 15.8%
Slider: 11.6%
Changeup: 8.5%
Here was his pitch usage in 2023 …
Fastball: 35.2%
Cutter: 26.9%
Slider: 20.7%
Curveball: 13.7%
Changeup: 3.5%
Hedges said Bieber’s ability to adapt each year is “why he’s so great.” On Thursday, the battery served the A’s a steady diet of fastballs, cutters and changeups, another evolution of the Bieber arsenal.
“The league adjusted to him,” Hedges said, “and now we’re adjusting back, and now the league’s going to have to make another adjustment.”
As Bieber spoke with reporters in a corridor outside the visitors clubhouse late Thursday night, an Oakland fan walked past and shouted, “We’ll get you next time.”
“Doubt it,” Bieber muttered softly.
Who would bet against Cleveland’s ace? The new Bieber resembled the Bieber of old, just as the pitcher and manager imagined in November.
Said Hedges: “I think we’re in for a treat this year.”
(Photo: D. Ross Cameron / USA Today)