Shane Bieber still far from the mound | The plan with Trey Yesavage

The Blue Jays have built a strong rotation for 2026. The club will rely, in no particular order, on Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer, Cody Ponce, Jose Berrios, and Eric Lauer.

Clearly, there are resources available.

But we can already see how important depth is when we look at what's happening in Toronto. Shane Bieber, for example, is not 100% and we already knew he wouldn't be ready for the start of the season.

And now, today, we've learned that Bieber isn't exactly close to a comeback. The former Cy Young Award winner, in fact, has not yet resumed pitching on the mound.

He is able to throw at 120 feet, but we are not sending him to the mound.

Shane Bieber is still throwing at 120 feet, Schneider says, but not yet off the mound.

Seems like everything is still going according to their plan, but it's difficult to chart out any sort of timeline until the first time Bieber throws a real bullpen session. #BlueJays

— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) February 28, 2026

In reality, this comes as no surprise to the Jays, who expected Bieber to still be unable to pitch on the mound at this stage. But in reality, it suggests that it could be a while before he returns.

Because in addition to returning to the mound, he will have to prepare his arm to pitch several innings.

It's also worth noting that there's news about another starter on the club, Trey Yesavage, who didn't pitch this week. He's currently pitching in Dunedin and will continue to do so for the next few days.

However, even though he is expected to pitch before the end of camp, the club does not want to overload him. We should therefore expect him to pitch only three or four innings per start before the end of camp.

And at the start of the season, his starts will be very short.

Trey Yesavage threw live to hitters yesterday in Dunedin and will likely do so again in coming days before Blue Jays decide on his Grapefruit League debut

He may only get built up to 3-4 innings by end of camp and pitch shorter outings to begin the season

— Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) February 28, 2026

Remember that Yesavage has never pitched more than 98 innings in a regular season, a high he reached last year. The club must therefore obviously be cautious with him: sending him out to pitch 200 innings this year would not do him any favors.

And if we want to make sure he still has gas left in the tank once the playoffs roll around, we'll have to manage his workload carefully between now and then.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.