Shane Bieber, currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, reportedly returns to Guardians on $14 million deal

Shane Bieber will resume his career with the only team he has ever known.

The Cleveland Guardians ace, currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, agreed to re-sign with the team on a one-year, $14 million contract with a $16-million player option for 2026 on Friday, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He is reportedly expected to return in the middle of 2025.

The deal reportedly pays Bieber $10 million for 2025 with a $4 million buyout of his player option. Per the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, Bieber had offers for more money elsewhere to remain in Cleveland.

Bieber became an All-Star winner in 2019 and a Cy Young winner in 2020, but has struggled to stay healthy in the years since. He missed half the 2021 season with a a right shoulder subscapularis muscle strain, spent two months on the IL in 2021 with elbow inflammation and went under the knife to repair his UCL in April of this year.

When healthy, Bieber has been among the best pitchers in baseball, with a 3.02 ERA since 2019 that ranks 15th among all MLB starters. However, at age 29, there are also signs beyond the injuries that his arsenal is degrading, such as a fastball velocity decrease from 94.1 mph in 2020 to 91.3 mph in 2023 (his 69 four-seamers in 2024 averaged 92 mph).

Bieber also went from striking out 41.1% of batters in 2020 to 20.1% in 2023, with chase rates of 35.7% to 29.7% those same years. To be clear, he has been an above-average pitcher even in those down years, with a 3.80 ERA and 3.87 FIP in 2023.

Pitchers often return from Tommy John surgery looking like their old selves, but in Bieber’s case, he might be shooting for his old self from two or three years ago. Fortunately, he’ll at least be doing so while wearing the same uniform.