Blue Jays Activate Shane Bieber, Designate Hayden Juenger

The Blue Jays announced Tuesday that right-hander Shane Bieber is being activated from the 60-day injured list. To make room on the active roster, righty Lazaro Estrada has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. A 40-man roster spot has been created by designating righty Hayden Juenger for assignment.

Bieber, 31, will make his season debut when he starts today against the visiting Astros. He’s been out all year due to forearm and elbow fatigue. The former AL Cy Young Award winner returned from Tommy John surgery last August and, between his minor league rehab work and Toronto’s deep postseason run, wound up pitching 88 innings from mid-July through late October.

Bieber has made five rehab starts this year, though the results haven’t been pretty. In 17 innings, the veteran righty has been tagged for 13 earned runs on 27 hits (including four homers) and five walks with 14 strikeouts. His 91.8 mph average fastball during that rehab work is nearly a mile per hour shy of last year’s 92.6 mph average.

Toronto could certainly use a healthy Bieber — or even a 90% Bieber — in the rotation at the moment. José Berríos is out for the season following his own Tommy John procedure. Right-hander Cody Ponce, signed to a three-year deal after a dominant career renaissance in the Korea Baseball Organization, suffered a torn ACL in his first start of the season. Max Scherzer just went back to the injured list for the second time this season. Depth starter Bowden Francis is out for the season due to a UCL procedure. Eric Lauer was traded to the Dodgers last month after a poor start to his 2026 campaign.

That spate of injuries and struggles means Bieber will join a rotation including Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Patrick Corbin. Gausman and Yesavage have been good on the whole this season, while Corbin — who signed a cheap one-year deal amid the team’s early-season injury crisis — has been a serviceable back-of-the-rotation arm. Each of Gausman, Yesavage and Corbin, however, has an ERA north of 6.00 over the past month. Cease has been dominant all season, but he’s the only Jays starter who’s been particularly productive of late.

Juenger, 25, was only selected to the 40-man roster late last month. He made his big league debut with the Jays not long after, allowing three runs on a pair of hits and a pair of walks across two innings. He’s only appeared in two big league games.

It’ll be a short stay on the 40-man roster for Juenger, though it’s certainly possible another club will have some interest, whether via a small trade or waiver claim. The Jays’ sixth-round pick back in 2021, Juenger was out to a terrific start in the minors this season. He’s pitched 24 1/3 innings and logged a 2.59 ERA while fanning 27.2% of his opponents and issuing walks at a respectable 8.7% clip. He’s primarily a fastball/changeup reliever but does mix in the occasional slider. Juenger’s heater sits 94-95 mph on average.

Any club could have taken Juenger in December’s Rule 5 Draft, but he went unselected. That doesn’t at all mean he won’t be scooped up this time around. His strong 2026 performance in Triple-A may have boosted his stock in the eyes of other clubs, and any team adding Juenger now wouldn’t be forced to keep him on the active roster all season, as they would have upon selecting him in the Rule 5. This is his first time being selected to the 40-man roster, so he has a full slate of three minor league option years ahead of him. That makes him a decent roll of the dice for any team seeking optionable relief help.

The Jays will have five days to trade Juenger or place him on outright waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so we’ll know the outcome of his DFA within no more than one week’s time.