It was no surprise that the Toronto Blue Jays decided to take a chance on right-hander Shane Bieber. When Bieber has been at his best throughout his career, he’s been one of the better starters in Major League Baseball. He had a rough outing in his last appearance for the Blue Jays, but it was just his third start of the year in the show.Â
Nonetheless, he allowed five earned runs in 6.0 innings, striking out six. Bieber now has a 4.15 ERA in just 17.1 innings.Â
There might not be a player who has a more questionable free agency than the former Cy Young Award winner. Many believe that Bieber is one of the top arms in baseball when healthy, but that’s the problem. Over the past two years, he’s appeared in just five games between the Cleveland Guardians and Blue Jays. Typically, that doesn’t end well for players looking to get paid.Â
Despite that, Jon Heyman of the New York Post believes the Blue Jays could lose him in free agency, not even naming them as one of the landing spots for the veteran. He noted, however, that the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers could be potential fits.Â
âHeâs off to a big start as deadline pickup. Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers,â Heyman wrote.
Shane Bieber Benefits From Trade to Blue JaysÂ
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, getting traded to the Toronto Blue Jays actually worked out in Bieber’s favor for a few different reasons. Not only does he have an opportunity to opt out of his deal, but he can’t be offered the qualifying offer now.Â
âShane Bieber, Blue Jays, right-handed starter: Being traded to Toronto allowed Bieber a hall pass from the qualifying offer, which is enough to take his $4 million buyout and turn down a $16 million option — provided he remains healthy for the rest of the season,â he wrote.
The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers have continued to prove over the past few years that theyâre willing to spend with the best of them.Â
Will the Blue Jays Pay Shane Bieber?
If the Toronto Blue Jays don’t want to keep Bieber around or give him the money he’s looking for, there isn’t much of a debate that either team wouldn’t give him what he’s looking for.Â
While the Dodgers have spent more than the Red Sox, Robert Murray of FanSided spoke about the situation recently regarding Boston. He noted that he continues to hear that there’s some rumbling going on for Bieber to land with the Red Sox in free agency.
“(Bieber) is one name that Iâm keeping my eye with Boston, and this is me connecting dots, but in the offseason, they were very much in the Shane Bieber market,â Murray said on “The Baseball Insiders.” âBieber would make a tremendous amount of sense there. Iâve said that at one point I thought he was going to Boston, and Iâm pretty sure he thought he was going to Boston, too.â
The Red Sox did something similar last offseason by acquiring Walker Buehler.Â
However, while Buehler has had similar injury issues, Bieber has been better when he’s healthy.Â
Hopefully, if the Red Sox land him, that’d be the case.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Blue Jays Latest Addition Could Leave for Dodgers, Per MLB Insider appeared first on Heavy Sports.