Cleveland Guardians' Top Pitcher Receives Bleak Outlook

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Shane Bieber appears to be moving closer toward a return, but that's what everyone thought a month ago before he had a setback.

Bieber is making his way back from Tommy John surgery, and the Guardians' starting rotation obviously needs the right-hander back in the fold. But we will ever see the same pitcher who once won the AL Cy Young award ever again?

Jack O'Rourke of The BIG Factor isn't so sure and expressed some very serious concerns about Bieber during a recent episode.

“If you took out his name and looked at everything else about this scenario and what was going on, took out stats, just how many times his body has gone through it, where his velocity has decreased, I would look at you and say I know he’s a control specialist, so he’s probably going to hang around until he’s 35, but I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that arm talent’s going to be there,” O’Rourke said.

Bieber was once one of the most talented pitchers in baseball, but injuries have absolutely derailed him over the years.

The 30-year-old has made a grand total of 23 starts since 2023, and even before that, he had some difficulty staying healthy.

During his last fully healthy campaign in 2022, Bieber was brilliant, logging a 2.88 ERA while allowing 172 hits and registering 198 strikeouts over 200 innings of work, but whether or not the Guardians — or anyone else — will ever get that version of him again is debatable.

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