Shane Bieber
Bieber's 2020 Cy Young season remains one of the most dominant pitching performances of the modern era, posting a microscopic 1.63 ERA with an ERA+ of 272 — meaning he was nearly three times better than league average. That 60-game campaign showcased peak command that few pitchers ever reach.
The concerning part? Bieber hasn't come close to replicating that magic since. His career 3.24 ERA and 143 ERA+ still mark him as well above average, but the gap between his peak and current performance tells the story of a pitcher searching for his former brilliance.
At 31, Bieber's 995 career strikeouts in just 883 innings demonstrate his swing-and-miss stuff remains intact. The question isn't whether he can still pitch effectively — it's whether he can rediscover the elite command that made him briefly untouchable.
| Date | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | HR | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | W |
| Jul 10 | 4.667 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | — |
| Jul 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | L |
| Jun 28 | 5.333 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | — |
| Jun 23 | 3.667 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | — |
Career · Hitting
3 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | — | 20 | 4 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2019 | — | 34 | 5 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2021 | — | 16 | 6 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| Career | 70 | 15 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
9 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | — | 20 | 114.2 | 11 | 5 | 4.55 | — | 118 | 1.33 |
| 2019 | — | 34 | 214.1 | 15 | 8 | 3.28 | — | 259 | 1.05 |
| 2020 | — | 12 | 77.1 | 8 | 1 | 1.63 | — | 122 | 0.87 |
| 2021 | — | 16 | 96.2 | 7 | 4 | 3.17 | — | 134 | 1.21 |
| 2022 | — | 31 | 200.0 | 13 | 8 | 2.88 | — | 198 | 1.04 |
| 2023 | — | 21 | 128.0 | 6 | 6 | 3.80 | — | 107 | 1.23 |
| 2024 | — | 2 | 12.0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | — | 20 | 0.92 |
| 2025 | — | 7 | 40.1 | 4 | 2 | 3.57 | — | 37 | 1.02 |
| 2026 | — | 5 | 23.2 | 1 | 1 | 5.70 | — | 19 | 1.73 |
| Career | 148 | 904.9 | 67 | 35 | — | — | 1014 | — | |
Each pitch type this pitcher throws regularly, placed by how the ball moves — sideways break across, rise or drop down the side. Each dotted ring holds about the middle 85% of the league’s pitches of that type, so a cluster sitting outside its ring is movement most pitchers don’t have.
The dots — a sample of this pitcher’s regular-season pitches, placed by movement: left–right is horizontal break, up–down is induced vertical break (what the pitch does beyond gravity). The view is handedness-neutral — positive break is toward the pitcher’s arm side for lefties and righties alike, so every sinker runs right and every sweeper breaks left, whoever throws it.
The dotted rings — about the middle 85% of where each pitch type lands league-wide (a 2-standard-deviation spread), measured from 7.5 million regular-season pitches since 2015. A cluster sitting well outside its ring is movement most of the league doesn’t get. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.