Right-hander Shane Bieber is set to make his Blue Jays debut on Friday night when Toronto visits the Miami Marlins.
Bieber, who won the American League Cy Young Award for the Cleveland Guardians in 2020, was acquired by the Blue Jays on July 31.
He is only now set to make his debut because he has been out since April of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery.
It remains to be seen how much Bieber — a two-time All-Star and a 2022 Gold Glove award-winner — can give the Blue Jays. Bieber lost his lone career start against Miami on April 22, 2023, when he gave up three runs and four hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Eric Lauer, who has made 14 starts and six relief appearances this year, will be available to pitch bulk innings behind Bieber. Lauer has been outstanding this year, going 8-2 with a 2.76 ERA.
“Everyone is deserving to be in this rotation,” Toronto manager John Schneider said of his talented starting pitchers. “We’ve had multiple conversations with all of (Toronto’s starters). They all land in the same place, which is: ‘We just want to win.’”
Offensively, Toronto is led by George Springer, who turns 36 next month. Springer, who has split his time almost equally between designated hitter and outfield this year, is tied with five-time All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the team lead in homers (21).
However, Guerrero has been out due to a hamstring injury, and he’s listed as day-to-day.
Springer leads Toronto in OPS (.905), and Guerrero is second (.894).
The other Toronto hitter to watch is 27-year-old shortstop Bo Bichette (.805 OPS, team-high 38 doubles).
Meanwhile, the Marlins — who have not yet announced a starting pitcher for Friday’s game — are still trying to figure out the catcher position.
Rookie Agustin Ramirez is a terrific hitter. He leads the Marlins in doubles (27), and he ranks second in homers (18) in just 101 games.
Those numbers, projected over a full season, would make Ramirez one of the best-hitting catchers in the majors.
The problem is that Ramirez has had major issues defensively, including a league-leading 13 passed balls. Ramirez also has seven errors and has been behind the plate for 26 wild pitches.
Ramirez has thrown out just 5 of 61 runners attempting to steal bases. That’s a success rate of just 8.2 percent, which is well below the league average of 23.1 percent. His .984 fielding percentage is also below the league average of .993.
Going deeper into the metrics, Ramirez’s defense is worth negative-14 runs so far and a projected negative-41 runs for a full season.
Ramirez, who turns 24 next month, is too young to become a full-time DH, and there’s no way of knowing if he could make a successful switch to first base, where the Marlins are considered to have a hole.
But what is known is that the Marlins have a young catcher, 22-year-old Joe Mack, who could make his MLB debut when rosters are allowed to expand on Sept. 1. Mack was a Marlins first-round pick in 2021.
In the meantime, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough is saying all the right things about Ramirez.
“We going to rally around ‘Gus’,” McCullough said after Ramirez’s rough defensive series against the Cardinals this week. “We believe in him as a person and in his ability.”