Meet Cleveland's new ace: Bieber K's 14 in W

CLEVELAND -- When one ace leaves, another emerges.

After the Tribe traded their top starter, two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, to Texas in December, many wondered if someone would be able to replace him. Manager Terry Francona often catches himself saying things about Shane Bieber that he once said about a young Kluber. And after Friday’s Opening Day performance in Cleveland’s 2-0 victory over the Royals, Bieber proved just how capable he is of filling Kluber’s large shoes.

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Bieber cruised through six innings, setting the club record for strikeouts on Opening Day, with 14. It was the first time a Major League pitcher fanned at least 14 batters in the first game of the season since Randy Johnson did so in 1996 through seven frames. Bieber allowed just four hits and one walk in his dominant outing.

“I mean, I've honestly never seen anything like it,” said outfielder Oscar Mercado, who broke the scoreless tie in the fifth with an RBI single. “His ability to control both sides of the plate with all these pitches, throw any pitch in whatever count. He's a remarkable talent, and I'm glad he's on my team. It's fun watching him pitch.”

Bieber threw 37 curveballs; 13 resulted in swings-and-misses, while four others were called strikes. In 2019 his curve produced the highest whiff rate of any pitch in his arsenal, at 48.7 percent.

After Bieber finished his record-breaking performance, the bullpen picked up four more strikeouts, with Nick Wittgren and closer Brad Hand each recording two. The club’s 18 total strikeouts are the most by a team in a nine-inning Opening Day game since at least 1901.

“I think when I get into a rhythm like that, I’m attacking, and so it’s two strikes, and that’s when I’m trying to miss barrels,” Bieber said. “If I can get a quick out on one of the first two or first three pitches, I would gladly take that and go deeper into the game, but I feel like I had a lot of three-pitch strikeouts today, and that was just me trying to be aggressive and get as deep in the ballgame as possible.”

“When you get that many swings and misses, you know you got something working,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He was really sharp. He had multiple pitches working.”

Just a few years ago, Bieber was a walk-on at UC Santa Barbara. He was taken in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB Draft, and was ranked the Tribe’s No. 11 prospect in 2017. Since then the organization has watched him develop at a rapid rate.

“He’s taken steps that it usually takes guys four or five years to take, he’s taking it each year,” fellow starter Mike Clevinger said. “He’s grown up from the bright-eyed kid asking everybody questions to really knowing what he’s gotta do. He has a plan of attack. He has his workout routine set. He’s got his recovery thing, routine set. He’s taken charge of this whole thing.”

“He’s a great example for a lot of other players of what’s possible with hard work and determination,” president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said. “And a great mindset.”

From being the Tribe’s fifth starter to open the 2019 season to placing fourth in the American League Cy Young Award voting to being named the club’s Opening Day starter, Bieber has quickly become the rock of this rotation. But does Francona believe that the 25-year-old can already take over the role of team ace?

“Yes,” Francona said definitively. “I think he is learning on the run not only how to be a guy that can anchor your pitching staff but how to be a leader, too. And I don’t think he’s shying away from that. He’s doing it in a really good way, where he’s not the loudest guy in the room, but he leads by example, the way he carries himself. And you’re going to see him grow into a tremendous leader on that pitching staff."