TORONTO -- The Blue Jays have placed starter Shane Bieber on the 15-day IL with right teres major inflammation, another significant blow to a rotation that’s spent all season weathering them.
There was no indication this news was coming Tuesday. Bieber missed around the first half of the season, dealing with some lingering elbow and forearm issues from the Blue Jays’ World Series run in 2025, but he’s appeared to be healthy ever since he returned in late June.
Bieber has looked so much sharper in recent weeks and is coming off his best outing of the season, seven innings of one-run ball against the Rays with seven strikeouts. He’s looked like his old self, which has been perfectly timed for a team making a postseason push and a pitcher nearing free agency. Now, he’s back on the IL, right alongside too many other Blue Jays starters.
The Blue Jays have already been without José Berríos, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis for the season, and Trey Yesavage recently joined them after undergoing surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee. Jameson Taillon, acquired to support this rotation at the Deadline, is on the IL with a forearm injury. Bieber already spent extensive time on the IL, and Max Scherzer has seen multiple stints this season as well. Add in the fact that the Blue Jays dealt Kevin Gausman at the Trade Deadline, and this feels so far away from Spring Training, when we wondered how the Blue Jays would manage such an impressive group of starters.
As it stands, the Blue Jays’ rotation is: Dylan Cease, José Soriano, Max Scherzer and Spencer Arrighetti. Even in Arrighetti’s spot, he’s still in the process of stretching back out after a recent IL stint of his own, but anyone capable of throwing more than four innings qualifies as a “starter” right now.
This puts the Blue Jays in scramble mode once again. Chad Dallas has been recalled and can be part of the solution alongside Simeon Woods Richardson, who straddled the line between starter and “bulk reliever” but could be asked to stretch deeper. In Triple-A, the Blue Jays also have CJ Van Eyk and John Klein, but regardless of how they patch this together, it’s going to be awfully difficult to replace Bieber.
The Blue Jays open a series against the Royals at home on Tuesday.