MLB insider thinks Shane Bieber makes the Blue Jays the scariest team in the postseason

The Toronto Blue Jays made a surprising move at the trade deadline, giving up prospect Khal Stephen to acquire a former Cy Young Award winner from the Cleveland Guardians. The Blue Jays had high hopes that Shane Bieber would return to high form and help carry the team to a World Series. With his MLB return after being out since exiting last season due to an injury that required Tommy John surgery, one MLB insider believes the Blue Jays may have a scary starting rotation in the postseason.

In Cleveland, the righty was an integral part of the success the starting rotation produced. In the 2020 pandemic season, Bieber won the Cy Young Award unanimously and was the first MLB Triple Crown winner since 2006.  Due to the shortened season, the former ace was outstanding, pitching a 1.63 ERA and 122:22 strikeout-to-walk ratio. This type of success is what the Blue Jays are banking on.

After two starts this season, the 30-year-old has been as advertised. In 11 1/3 innings, Bieber has a 2.38 ERA with 15 strikeouts and one hit by pitch. The righty's one flaw has been the long ball. Two of his three earned runs have come from solo home runs. In Bieber's first start, he threw six innings against the Miami Marlins, striking out nine, and surrendering one earned run off two hits. The one earned run came off a Javier Sanoja solo home run.

After Bieber’s first start, ESPN insider Buster Olney said in an interview with Paul Hembekides (Hembo), "the Blue Jays may have possibly made the best trade in any sport". Hembo, a statistician for ESPN, went on to say that Bieber's first MLB start since having Tommy John surgery brought on career-highs.

The righty posted the best location+ grade (124) of his entire eight-year career, his four-seam fastball was the fastest (92.7 mph) he's thrown since August 2022, his cutter (88.2 mph) was the quickest he's thrown since May 2022, the average breaking ball RPM (2,624) was the highest since April 2021, and the most impressive stat is that his changeup dropped on average 35 inches, the highest in his career.

Bieber was phenomenal, placing his pitches in the strike zone and having them move out of the zone. His changeup was a perfect example. He was throwing it at the bottom of the zone and would then break out of the zone, fooling batters.

In his second start, Bieber took on the Milwaukee Brewers, who hold the best MLB record this season. He threw five shutout innings with six strikeouts before allowing a leadoff solo home run to Andruw Monasterio in the sixth inning. Bieber then allowed a single to Brice Turang and got William Contreras to fly out before getting replaced by Brendon Little.

Though Bieber gave up two runs, he looked great the first five innings against one of the best lineups in MLB. If the 30-year-old can continue to command his five-pitch arsenal, then the Blue Jays may have a formidable starting rotation when the postseason begins.