4 years agoCleveland Indians starting pitcher and ace Shane Bieber will make his spring debut Monday. Cleveland manager Terry Francona said Bieber would start Monday's Grapefruit League game against the Royals and pitch around two innings, Tom Withers of the Associated Press reports. Bieber was briefly delayed at the start of spring training while recovering from a positive COVID-19 test, but he experienced only minor symptoms of the virus and hasn't experienced any setbacks since resuming workouts. On the heels of a Cy Young-winning campaign, Bieber is looking to turn his slider into more of a weapon this season, so expect him to experiment liberally with the off-speed pitch during his spring outings. Bieber should be ready to handle close to a 100-pitch workload when he likely gets the ball in Cleveland's April 1 regular-season opener in Detroit. He's one of the safest bets at the top of draft boards this season at starting pitcher.--James Stokke
Source: Tom Withers (Associated Press)