The Cleveland Guardians held a valuable trade chip last Thursday, before the trade deadline.
With most contenders getting desperate to add starting pitching, they had an ace, Shane Bieber, in the final stages of Tommy John surgery rehab.
The 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner was ultimately traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for top pitching prospect Khal Stephen.
Stephen automatically became the Guardians’ top pitching prospect, which is no small feat.
Many fans, however, question the fact that a team still in the playoff hunt traded a potential stretch run ace.
Team insider Paul Hoynes explained that there were four scenarios in the Bieber conundrum.
The first one would have been keeping Bieber for the stretch run, knowing that, if he pitched well, the Guardians would probably lose him because he wasn’t going to use his $16 million player option.
The second one implied Bieber not bouncing back well enough from the long layoff, or suffering a setback, in which case he would have exercised his option.
“That’s a big contract for the Guardians to carry, especially if there are questions about his health,” Hoynes wrote.
A third scenario, which can actually be tied with the first one, had the Guardians keeping Bieber and the pitcher performing well, filing for free agency, getting a qualifying offer from Cleveland (it was worth $21.5 million for this season), rejecting it for a multi-year contract elsewhere, and netting Cleveland a high-round draft pick.
The fourth option was flipping him to another team, which they did because they received a good offer.
Stephen has already reached Double-A and oozes with potential.
As for Bieber, he made another rehab start on Sunday, reaching 62 pitches and allowing two runs in five innings, striking out six.
He will help the Blue Jays this year if his stuff and command bounce back well, but the Guardians, in all fairness, are doing fine without him.
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