TORONTO, ON – AUGUST 29: Shane Bieber #57 of the Toronto Blue Jays looks on from the dugout in the bottom of the fourth inning during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Rogers Centre on August 29, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
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The Toronto Blue Jays made several significant changes to their pitching staff before the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings even started.
The team added frontline starter Dylan Cease with a historic $210 million contract. And then it followed that up by bringing in starter Cody Ponce with a $30 million move shortly thereafter.
And both of those additions came after the team received word that former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber would be opting into his contract with the team for next season. That news was welcomed, but it was a bit of a surprise after Bieber enjoyed a strong tenure with the Blue Jays and seemed poised to opt out and secure a longer-term deal in free agency.
Now the team has hinted at a reason for why Bieber might have preferred to stick with his current contract, as general manager Ross Atkins suggested he might be dealing with some lingering injury issues.
“So we’ll be cognizant and make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep putting him in the most safe position possible,” Atkins said of Bieber, after acknowledging that he took on a large workload at the end of this past season, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. “And I suppose as he starts to ramp up, we could consider some stagger and the potential of him, you know, not being 100 percent at the very start, but we’re taking it kind of a week at a time at this point with Shane.”
Treating a pitcher as week-to-week during the offseason is rare, and opened the door to an undisclosed injury setback for Bieber. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2024 and, though he appeared to be pretty close to his top form for the Blue Jays last year, the team could be concerned about a setback.
And an injury setback would also help to explain Bieber’s decision to return to the Blue Jays after their trip to the World Series.
“Across the industry, executives remain baffled by right-hander Shane Bieber’s decision to exercise his $16 million player option with the Blue Jays, calling it one of the most bizarre in recent memory,” Ken Rosenthal wrote for The Athletic. “Bieber, who joined the Blue Jays in a deadline trade, evidently trusts the Jays’ medical and training staffs to help him continue his recovery. But some executives wonder if he is concerned about his health. By exercising his player option, he avoided the physical examination required of free agents before their contracts become official.”
If Bieber is dealing with an injury setback, that could explain why the Blue Jays added both Cease and Ponce before the Winter Meetings got underway.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterchawaga/2025/12/09/blue-jays-hint-at-unfortunate-injury-setback-for-shane-bieber/
