Cleveland Guardians Slammed With Brutal Injury News on Star Pitcher

It was looking like Shane Bieber was making great progress and was on track to return to the Cleveland Guardians pretty soon, but now, the star pitcher has hit a roadblock in his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

Zack Meisel of The Athletic has reported that Bieber will not make his scheduled rehab start for Double-A Akron on Friday after experiencing soreness following a bullpen session earlier this week. He will meet with doctors to determine the next step.

This is obviously not what Guardians fans wanted to hear, especially with fellow starter Ben Lively recently going down for the year with Tommy John surgery himself.

Bieber has not pitched since early last April. He made just two starts in 2024 before being shut down. Cleveland re-signed him in free agency, hoping that the former AL Cy Young award winner would return to its staff at some point in 2025. That still might happen, but obviously, things are not going as smoothly as planned.

Bieber has a very checkered injury history, having made 16, 21, 31 and two starts, respectively, over his last four seasons. During his one healthy campaign in 2022, he went 13-8 with a 2.88 ERA, so we know what he can do when he is right.

The problem is that the 30-year-old has experienced significant medical issues since entering the big leagues back in 2018, recording 30 starts just twice throughout that span.

Bieber owns a lifetime 3.22 ERA and is averaging 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings over the course of his career.

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