Trade Deadline, rotation questions loom with Bieber's potential injury

ARLINGTON -- This isn’t the way the Guardians were hoping to start the second half of their season.

On Friday, starter Shane Bieber underwent an MRI on his right forearm. The team is waiting to hear the results. He’s scheduled to see Dr. Keith Meister at some point on Saturday. For now, Cleveland knows that Bieber will not make his start in Pittsburgh on Monday. After that, the club is trying to figure out what the plan will be.

“For about the last month, [Bieber's] forearm has been kind of irritable,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “But we felt like he was trending in the right direction. For [a few] starts there, I think we held him to like 80 pitches. But the last couple [starts], he wasn’t comfortable with the way he’s bouncing back.”

It became apparent that the Guardians were being extra cautious with Bieber on June 23 in his start against the Brewers. When he was pitching in the fifth inning around just 75 pitches, Cleveland had a reliever up in the bullpen, which was far from the norm when the team’s ace is on the rubber. When he returned in the sixth, he gave up three runs without recording an out.

Bieber's past two starts were similar to his outing against Milwaukee. His pitch count crept back up into the 90s, but the more pitches he threw, the easier he became to hit. In each outing, it took until at least the fifth for runs to be put on the board as he fatigued.

Two big questions are now left to answer: What does this mean for Bieber's trade value? And what does this mean for the rotation moving forward?

If Bieber has to miss extended time, the Trade Deadline rumors involving his name will quickly start to quiet. If a contending team is hoping to bolster its rotation with a top-notch starter before the playoffs, it’s probably not going to want to take a risk on a pitcher who has been dealing with forearm troubles over the past month.

Depending on the results of Bieber's MRI, he may not be able to make enough starts to be impactful. It’s hard to know exactly what this means for his immediate future until the results come back, but it certainly makes him remaining in a Cleveland uniform the more probable scenario.

Let’s dive into how the rest of the rotation will look in the near future.

The Guardians needed a fifth starter out of the break already, considering Cal Quantrill and Triston McKenzie are both on the injured list. Logan Allen is expected to fill that vacancy on Tuesday. But now that Bieber is out for at least his start on Monday, Cleveland will have to figure out how it'll fill yet another opening.

If this is a short-term problem, the Guardians could probably get by with a bullpen game on Monday. Francona said that’s a possibility, assuming the bullpen doesn’t get exhausted this weekend in Texas.

Hunter Gaddis could be an option, but he hasn’t thrown more than four innings in an outing -- in the Majors or Triple-A Columbus -- since May 22, working as both a starter and reliever in that span. Zach Plesac started for Columbus on Friday, which would rule him out for Monday if that was in Cleveland’s plans.

It seems to be too soon for No. 14 prospect Joey Cantillo to get the promotion after owning a 4.38 ERA in eight games (six starts) for Columbus, but the Guardians will have to keep their options open.

The length of Bieber's absence will determine the severity of Cleveland’s starting situation. The rotation is down to just one veteran in Aaron Civale, relying on rookies Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee and Allen to handle tremendous workloads.

The Guardians have already voiced their desire to keep a close eye on each of their innings totals this season, considering none have thrown more than 132 2/3 frames in a single season, but that’s going to be hard to do if the team doesn’t have veterans who can eat up innings when it’s their turn to take the ball.

So far, Cleveland has been lucky with how relying on youth has paid off for the club. The Guardians just desperately need that to remain the case moving forward, as they wait to hear Bieber’s results.

“[The young kids have] kept us in games, because they’ve competed,” Francona said. “Our bullpen has done a very good job, because they’ve gobbled up a lot of innings. It’s going to get more challenging if Bieber misses starts. Doesn’t mean you can’t win. Just means your margin for error is less.”