The Cleveland Guardians placed right-hander Shane Bieber on the 15-day injured list Saturday due to elbow inflammation in his pitching arm.
The news comes one day after Bieber had an MRI exam.
“For about the last month, (his) forearm has been kind of irritable, but we felt like he was trending in the right direction,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “For (a few) starts there, I think we held him to like 80 pitches. But the last couple (starts), he wasn’t comfortable with the way he’s bouncing back.”
Also on Saturday, Cleveland recalled right-hander Michael Kelly from Triple-A Columbus.
Bieber, 28, is 5-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 19 starts this year, but he is 0-3 with a 5.22 ERA in his past five outings.
He most recently pitched on Sunday, when he gave up four runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings during a 4-1 loss to the visiting Kansas City Royals. Bieber struck out six without issuing a walk.
Bieber was the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner after going 8-1 with a 1.63 ERA in 12 starts during the pandemic-abbreviated season. The two-time All-Star has a career 59-32 record with a 3.26 ERA in 132 games (130 starts).
Kelly, 30, is 1-3 with two saves and a 2.73 ERA in 27 relief appearances this season with Columbus.
–Field Level Media