After starting the first 19 games last season, Guardians ace Shane Bieber was unable to start again until September due to inflammation in his right elbow, cutting the season short and missing the rest after returning. He could only play in two games.
However, in 2024, Beaver’s season will end after playing in just two games.
team announced on Saturday Bieber, 28, experienced “medial right elbow pain” after games against the Athletics and Mariners and will undergo reconstructive surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
In a statement, the team said, “Given the recurrence of his symptoms after an extended period of rest and rehabilitation during the 2023 season and subsequent offseason, surgical reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament was recommended.”
Bieber, who won the American League Cy Young Award in 2020, made his fifth straight Opening Day start this year.
He pitched the first 12 scoreless innings of the season, giving up 10 hits, striking out a league-high 20 batters, and giving up just one walk in two wins.
“A night like tonight is just unbelievable,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said after the Beavers’ second game against the Mariners. According to the Associated Press. “It was cold, windy, and just overwhelming. It’s really fun to see it twice in a row.”
However, his elbow issues have become an issue again, with elbow inflammation and shoulder tightness from last year limiting him to 16 starts during the 2021 season and just two games after June 13, so Bieber He was recently forced to leave due to injury.
The Guardians entered Saturday’s game against the Twins with a blowout 6-2 record to start the season in Vogt’s first season.
The paper’s Jon Heyman reported in January that this was an early sign of pressure on the AL Central Division, making it unlikely to trade Bieber in the first place.
Instead, they will be forced to live without him for the rest of 2024.
Logan Allen, former Met Carlos Carrasco, Tanner Beebe and Triston McKenzie were the other four members of the Guardians’ rotation to open the season after Bieber, with McKenzie pitching five innings in 3 1/3 innings. They allowed 4 goals, 4 of which were earned. It was the only loss in the opening eight games.
And with Bieber’s injury occurring so early in the season, the Guardians still have time to bring in another starter if they wish.
But that doesn’t mean replacing the ace will be easy again.
