As rumors continue to rumble about the Indians trading away one of their Cy Young-caliber pitchers, the pain that move would inevitably cause is at least dampened somewhat by the emergence of Shane Bieber this past season.
Though the 4.55 ERA over 114.2 innings doesn’t exactly engender a lot of excitement, the numbers behind the numbers - 5/1 K/BB ratio, 3.23 FIP, a probably unsustainably high .356 BABIP - make Bieber seem like a real candidate for mid-rotation starter, if not something even greater. MLB.com’s Mike Petriello included him in a list of 5 potential breakout pitchers for 2019.