Cleveland Indians: Could prospect Shane Bieber be promoted soon?

Shane Bieber is one of the Cleveland Indians top performing prospects this season. How much longer until we see him in the big leagues?

What Shane Bieber has done this season is truly incredible. In five starts at Double-A, he pitched to a 1.16 ERA with 30 strikeouts over 31 masterful innings.

Then he earned a promotion to Triple-A. And he’s continued to dominate in Columbus as well. Over his first four starts in Triple-A, Bieber has a 1.32 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 27 and 1/3 innings. The truly remarkable part of it all, is that he’s given up just three walks all year. He’s struck out 54 and walked three.

His command of the zone is incredible. He’s doing everything you could ask of a player and he’s doing this at the highest level of the minor leagues.

When will he get the call up?

You would have to think Indians fans would get to see him in Cleveland at some point this season. He’s the Tribe’s eighth ranked prospect and probably the top performing one so far. We should definitely see him this summer not only because of his domination, but because of need.

Josh Tomlin has been removed from the rotation and Adam Plutko is currently taking his place. But for how much longer will Plutko be there? The Cleveland Indians have made no announcement that Plutko will become a permanent member of the rotation, just that he’s filling in for this next start. Should things go well, Plutko will probably get another start after that.

The Indians likely want to give Plutko a decent chance to earn a spot in the rotation while Bieber continues to develop. Plutko was a highly regarded prospect before a disastrous 2017 season, so they’ll give him a fair shot to earn his spot.

Should Plutko fail to win the job, the Tribe could move on to Bieber. They might give Plutko a couple of starts to see what he can do first. My guess is the earliest we could see Bieber is around mid-June and the latest Bieber would get a call up would probably be during the September roster expansion.

What could prevent an earlier call up?

If Plutko pitches well, that obviously wouldn’t leave any room in the big league rotation for Bieber. But in the back of the minds of the Indians’ front office is that Bieber hasn’t been in the minor leagues very long. As a college arm, he’s been able to progress quickly but he was a fourth round pick in 2016 and only has one full season in the minor leagues under his belt.

They may want to give him a little more time to develop. He’s only 22, and they have plenty of contractual control over him, and if they don’t absolutely need to start his service clock, they won’t.

That being said, this is likely the last year of their World Series window, and the Indians need to use whatever players they have at their disposal to win this year. Bieber could be an ace in the future and help the team win down the stretch.

If Bieber continues to dominate the highest level of the minor leagues, the Cleveland Indians could almost be forced to promote him and fill the fifth spot in the rotation.

Next: Best infield alignment going forward

College pitchers have the ability to move quickly through a minor league system after being drafted. Bieber is no different, but what he’s been able to do has been a cut above the rest.