DUNEDIN – Shane Bieber is attempting to remind himself that he’s had an extended wait to start out a Main League Baseball season earlier than.
Bieber spoke to the media on Wednesday, a day after the Toronto Blue Jays introduced that he wouldn’t be prepared to start out the season as he struggles with forearm fatigue. The star pitcher — probably the ace of Toronto’s beginning rotation — missed most of final yr as he recovered from Tommy John surgical procedure.
“You wish to know, and also you wish to have a date in thoughts, however they do job of attempting to maintain me week to week,” stated Bieber within the clubhouse of the Blue Jays’ Participant Improvement Centre. “Finally, I’m simply going to mattress each evening feeling joyful that I really feel good inside my development. We’re going to take it gradual and be good.
“It’s not about the way you begin, it’s about the way you end, and we undoubtedly know that, judging off the final yr. I do know this group’s hungry. I’m extraordinarily hungry, and I can’t wait to get again there.”
Bieber began final season on the injured listing of the Cleveland Guardians, the workforce he spent the primary seven years of his profession with, as he recovered from the operation on his ulnar collateral ligament
The 2020 Cy Younger Award winner was traded by Cleveland to the Blue Jays on July 31 for pitching prospect Khal Stephen. The 30-year-old then made his season debut for Toronto in Miami on Aug. 22.
He was instrumental within the Blue Jays’ run to the World Sequence, together with taking the loss in Sport 7 towards the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It was my first time going by means of TJ, first time pitching that deep within the post-season, so there have been a variety of new components, proper? Plenty of new components,” stated Bieber. “Trying again, these are essentially the most intense innings I’ve ever thrown, proper?
“So all of it is sensible, and I’m joyful to have a plan going ahead and feeling good proper now.”
Proper now, that plan is only a protracted spring coaching, taking extra time at every stage of a beginning pitcher’s typical development.
“All of us wish to be on the market and compete and carry out. I’ll be competing in my very own proper, and attempting to get again on the market ASAP,” stated Bieber. “Finally, I attempt to not deal with that stuff and the longer term, but it surely’s simpler stated than completed, proper?
“Everyone knows that in our lives, however I’ll attempt to deal with the right here and now, and I’m simply feeling good inside my development, and also you’ve received to hit each cease alongside the best way.”
Toronto additionally introduced on Tuesday that Bowden Francis will miss your complete 2026 season after he underwent Tommy John surgical procedure. Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider stated that the absences of Bieber and Francis don’t concern him an excessive amount of.
“We’re type of in a novel spot to the place, from the pitching aspect, we now have some depth on our main league roster already,” stated Schneider exterior the clubhouse. “If you’re speaking about Bowden and (Bieber) being a little bit bit behind.
“It’s opening some alternatives for different guys, for one, and different guys which have been in that place.”
Bieber completed the 2025 common season with a 4-2 file, a 3.57 earned-run common and 37 strikeouts over 40 1/3 innings pitched for the Blue Jays. He has a 66-34 file over his eight-year profession with a 66-34 file, 3.24 ERA and 995 strikeouts.
He determined to train his US$16 million participant choice within the low season, selecting to remain in Toronto relatively than exploring what would have undoubtedly been a profitable free-agent bidding contest.
“The truth of the matter is, I got here off the TJ proper right into a pennant race, and I wouldn’t have it another approach,” stated Bieber. “Pitching within the World Sequence, and I gave it every thing I received, as everyone else did in right here, finally, I took my choice.
“I wished to be again right here. My household wished to be again right here.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 11, 2026.
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