CLEVELAND — From his first warmup pitch in the visitors bullpen last Tuesday at T-Mobile Park, Cleveland Guardians starter Shane Bieber had his suspicions. After he delivered his 83rd pitch — his last of the night and, as was confirmed a few days later, his last of the season — he became overwhelmed by the physical and emotional toll of it all.
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His slider zagged out of the zone. Mitch Garver waved at it for a third strike. Bieber spun around and retreated to the dugout, fully aware of what his right elbow was brewing.
“It was an emotional time,” he admitted Monday.
A week after what might have been his final start in a Cleveland uniform, Bieber’s emotions around having to undergo Tommy John surgery haven’t dissipated. He regularly paused and bit his lower lip to fight back tears as he explained how such a promising season disintegrated so rapidly. When a sellout crowd showered him with cheers during pregame introductions, he seemed overcome with emotions once again as he jogged to the beginning of the fist-bump line in left field.
As he grapples with a lost season and contemplates his future, Bieber said he keeps telling himself, “What’s for me can’t be taken from me.” He noted how so much of an athlete’s orbit is out of the athlete’s control. Pitching injuries are sprouting up throughout the league, and he’s not sure the root of it, especially since he felt he had buried the elbow ailment that bothered him last summer.
“My performance was getting back to the place I knew I was capable of,” Bieber said. “I was falling back in love with pitching.”
In case you missed it, it was a very emotional introduction for Shane Bieber before the Home Opener today against the White Sox. @CleGuardians | @ShaneBieber19 pic.twitter.com/7t33kr6P7q
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) April 8, 2024
This was supposed to be his year. His injuries in 2021 and 2023 were frustrating, inconvenient setbacks that interfered with his quest to rank among the league’s elite and with his bid to eventually snag a lucrative free-agent contract.
This, though, was a hurdle he never saw coming until his elbow started barking in Oakland a week and a half ago.
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The Guardians never saw it coming, either. This was the best they had witnessed from their ace, outside of the quirky 2020 season, when he captured the American League Cy Young Award for a breathtaking, 12-start exhibit of dominance. Though trepidation about pitcher injuries keeps any coach or executive awake at night, they were convinced he had moved past last season’s elbow woes. One team official said “it seems inconceivable” for a pitcher to log 20 strikeouts in 12 innings, with no earned runs allowed and only one walk — and then need Tommy John surgery in an instant. The official said it was “totally outside the realm of possibility in my head.” Bieber underwent imaging on his elbow Thursday. He and the team conferenced Friday night for a decision that delivered a harsh reality check.
All spring, Bieber raved throughout camp about how he cherished his new training regimen, with routine stops at the Driveline Baseball complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., a 15-minute commute from his home, a 10-minute trek from his workout facility. He completed his daily loop with a stop for a physical training session to cap his day.
This was all intended to fuel a healthy, productive season, one that would vault him back into conversations about the game’s top pitchers, one that would land him in the Cy Young Award conversation, one that would provide stability for a talented-but-youthful Guardians rotation. And one that would set him up to earn the contract he’s chased for years. Bieber even referred to it as “a very real elephant in the room.” And now?
“It’s a reality that we have to deal with,” he said. “I have no answers right now.”
An emotional Shane Bieber, holding back tears, said he had “fallen in love with pitching again” and said about this season: “I know I’ll be a part of it, but just in a different capacity.”
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) April 8, 2024
He blanked the A’s on Opening Day, and though he felt some discomfort in the middle innings, he chalked it up to early-season soreness. He admits now it was wishful thinking.
He wanted another sample of evidence, since he couldn’t replicate game-level intensity in his between-start sessions. Would his elbow beg for mercy if he took the mound and tossed his new-look changeup when every pitch has consequences? He took the mound in Seattle searching for answers and hoping the pain wouldn’t surface. He grew more confused as he continued to pile up strikeouts and zeros — all as his elbow screamed.
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“It’s also inspiring to know that if I’m doing that while not feeling good,” Bieber said, “I’m excited for what’s to come when I am.”
Corey Kluber and Michael Brantley visited Progressive Field on Monday for a tandem ceremonial first pitch. Kluber logged one inning in 2020 and missed the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. Brantley was no stranger to lengthy absences, including the 2016 season, when he appeared in only 11 games and had to watch Cleveland’s march to the World Series from a distance.
“There’s no way around it,” Kluber said. “It sucks. It’s not fun. I feel terrible for him.”
“You feel sorry for yourself for a little bit,” Brantley said, “but you have to shift the mindset as quickly as you can.”
“That allowed me to have something to work toward,” Kluber said, “instead of just feeling like you’re an outcast from the rest of the team.”
Bieber is getting there. He said he has no regrets with how he’s navigated the last year, and he choked up as he noted how strong he felt entering the regular season.
He dubbed it an “all-or-nothing situation,” an impending free agent trying to squeeze as much out of this season as he could. He gave it his all. And now he’s left with nothing but surgery and a host of questions about what comes next.
“It’s easy to keep things in perspective,” he said. “Things could be a lot worse, I’ll put it that way. … I’m coming to terms with everything.”
(Photo: Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)