Shane Bieber returning to Guardians on new contract

Shane Bieber is headed back to Cleveland. 

The right-handed starter and the Guardians agreed to a one-year deal with a player option for 2026 on Friday, according to The Post’s Jon Heyman. 

Bieber will earn $10 million in 2025 with a $16 million option for the year after. 

The deal includes a $4 million buyout, meaning he could earn $14 million this coming season and enter free agency next offseason.

Heyman added that Bieber turned down more money from other teams to stay with the Guardians. 

Bieber, who made just two starts in 2024, underwent Tommy John surgery in April. 

He’s expected to return to the big league mound in the middle of the 2025 season.

Despite some injury troubles throughout his seven-year career, Bieber has proven to be one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy.

Since his sophomore season in 2019, Bieber’s 3.02 ERA ranks sixth in the majors among pitchers with at least 600 innings on the mound. 

A two-time All-Star, the 29-year-old hurler has also finished top 10 in the American League Cy Young voting three times.

During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Bieber won the award, finishing with an MLB-best 1.63 ERA and 122 strikeouts over 77 ⅓ innings. 

With Bieber sidelined for nearly the whole season, the Guardians somewhat surprisingly won the AL Central and made the ALCS before falling to the Yankees in five games. 

Aside from perhaps Blake Snell, who signed a five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers in late November, Bieber is the biggest name to come off the board during the winter’s MLB free agency period.