Shane Bieber isn’t among the Top 10 pitchers in the MLB and that seems fair

The Cleveland Guardians star pitcher, Shane Bieber, isn’t performing as he should.

The Cleveland Guardians are not getting a star effort from their start pitcher Shane Bieber. The former Cy Young winner is looking very average in his sixth season in Cleveland. While not terrible numbers for your average starting caliber pitcher, Bieber’s numbers have taken a dip in 2023. He’s 1-1 with a 3.23 ERA. His walks per nine innings (BB9) are the second worst of his career (2.6) and his strikeouts per nine innings (SO9) are the lowest of his career (6.5).

Despite being healthy for all of 2022, his stats dipped from his injury-filled year in 2021. His SO9 went from 12.5 to 8.9 and now that number has fallen further to 6.5. His home runs are luckily a bit better but the season is only going to get harder, and it’s not surprising to see stats from starters do dip for some time around mid-summer.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that Bieber is no longer being seen as a Top 10 pitcher in the league according to Major League Baseball.

Can Shane Bieber rebound and will it matter?

Bieber’s riding back-to-back down years in key stats. While he was still great last year, he was down from his ’20 and ’21 forms in 2022. Though the drop seemed to be nothing to worry about, but three straight years of declining performance is. The Guardians have him for another year, at least, but should they keep him around?

If Bieber’s efficiency is dropping, it’d be wise to cash out on him now, while the Guardians still can get the most value for him, then it would be to trade him after yet another down season, and worse, lose him in free agency.

Bieber’s still a good pitcher, don’t get this twisted, but he was once the best pitcher in the American League, if not the entire Major League, and it’s fair to say he isn’t anymore. In fact, his fastball has fallen from 94 MPH in 2020 to 91 MPH in 2022. That velocity has continued to fall.

Considering he’s not even 30 years, and his performance is being affected by his declining fastball, it’s fair to say that leaning on Bieber isn’t the way to go. At least anymore. The team may need to overhaul their pitching staff mid-season with some key trades, and besides dumping Zach Plesac for whatever you can get for him, and maybe turning Aaron Civale into a reliever, the team may want to consider Bieber as well. Especially if other minor-league pitchers end up maturing alongside recently called-up Logan Allen.

Trading Bieber isn’t an option we should be pulling for, but if he continues to decline, the Guardians may need to maximize on his value before it becomes apparent he’s not what he once was.