Bieber 'excited' following throwing session

CLEVELAND -- It’s a sight that hasn’t been seen at Progressive Field since early June: A smiling Shane Bieber throwing from 60 feet without a worry.

Bieber may have been on the outfield grass instead of the rubber, but the Indians right-hander made a positive step on Friday afternoon, letting the ball fly out of his hand between 60 and 90 feet after having somewhat of a setback just a week ago.

“Today was a good day,” Bieber said. “The last two days have been good days as well and I think that’s what it’s all about, being able to stack good days together and continue to progress.”

Bieber was placed on the injured list on June 14 with a right shoulder strain -- something he had been feeling for a few weeks at that point. The 26-year-old said that rest was probably the most important thing that was needed in order for him to start his path to recovery.

“That was kind of the diagnosis,” Bieber said. “It needed a little bit of rest and after that we had to try to build things up as quickly and safely as possible. I mean, I’m not super enthused about the fact that it’s taken a little bit longer than expected, but it is what it is and we gotta think safety and long-term, so it came down to getting a little bit of rest.”

Bieber was cleared to resume playing catch toward the end of July, but he had to take a few days off and regress back to throwing just weighted balls after his shoulder wasn’t responding the way he had hoped. But now that he’s been given the green light to resume his throwing progression, his enormous grin answered every question of how he’s been feeling.

“I’m sure you can tell that I’m excited and want to come back as soon as possible,” he said.

There’s nothing that Bieber, the team and Cleveland fans would want more than to see the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner back on the mound this season. However, now it’s going to come down to whether that’s the smartest decision.

The Indians have found themselves a week into August, sitting 9 1/2 games out of first place in the American League Central and 7 1/2 games back of the second AL Wild Card spot. And with only 55 games remaining after Friday’s series opener against the Tigers, that leaves little room for the club to overcome those large deficits. If the postseason gets farther out of the picture, trying to get Bieber to pitch a few innings in 2021 may not be worth it.

But Bieber’s goal is to pitch as soon as possible. Sitting out has been a new experience for him, as his microscopic list of transactions over his four big league seasons speaks for itself. And when he was originally given the timeline of not picking up a baseball for only two or three weeks, it’s been quite the adjustment for him to realize it was going to take much longer than expected.

“This is the first handful of starts I’ve missed since freshman year of college,” Bieber said. “I’ve been throwing every five or seven days since then, so this has been tough, mentally, for sure. It’s hard not to keep that timeline -- and, obviously, that’s what we were shooting for, and that was best-case scenario. But at the same time ... I was also told a few times this isn’t a timeline thing, this is a day-by-day thing, so we’ll see what happens.”

And at this point, Bieber doesn’t even know what his timeline to return to game activity is. For now, he’s just focused on feeling good each day.

“I wish I could tell you,” Bieber said of a possible return. “But I’m going to want to pitch as much as I can. I’ll continue to take this day by day and make the smartest decision as we go down the road.”