The Toronto Blue Jays had to take a gamble.
USA Today's Bob Nightengale calls it the "biggest gamble" made at the MLB trade deadline.
The move that qualified: Toronto's trade for Cleveland's Shane Bieber.
Bieber had just made a rehab start for Double-A Akron two days before the deal. He's coming back from Tommy John surgery.
Here's what Nightengale wrote on Sunday:
The Blue Jays are taking the chance that Shane Bieber, who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues all season recovering from Tommy John surgery, will return to become the Cy Young winner of old.
“The risk is, almost in some ways, the exciting aspect of it because of the upside,” Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins told reporters. “The upside is just so big, and I think what makes it riskier is the fact that he’s not pitching in major-league games right now.”
Bieber would be potentially their Game 1 starter in the playoffs ahead of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer. This is a dude that won the Cy Young award in 2020, and two years later went 13-8 with a 2.88 ERA, striking out 198 batters in 200 innings.
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Bieber was an obvious trade candidate. His contract is up at the end of the season.
His comeback had already been derailed once in June, when he had to temporarily shut it down, but he made three quality rehab starts before the Blue Jays traded for him.
He'll likely be up pretty soon to Toronto, and he can definitely make an impact.
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There's no telling for sure how good Bieber will be upon his return, but Toronto had to get some kind of pitching to try and maintain their lead in the AL East.
Whether it pays off or not, that's the gamble.
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