Shane Bieber’s ‘stunning’ opt-in says a lot about Blue Jays culture

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman discuss the pitcher’s decision to return to Toronto on a $16 million player option for the 2026 season. Check out the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

The other one that was much more shocking was Shane Bieber.

Opting in to $16 million for 2026 to stay with the Toronto Blue Jays.

So, Bieber signed a two-year deal.

With a opt out with the Guardians last winter.

The overwhelming expectation was that Bieber was going to use the first year to most of the first season to rehab, come back, pitch well in the second half, and then parlay that into a new free agent deal.

That all happened, except he didn’t opt out.

With Bieber, the sense was, well it was not a perfect return from Tommy John, and, you know, there’s still parts where you’re not totally sure what you’re gonna be getting moving forward.

It was way easier to imagine teams getting excited about what it could become moving forward because of what he was, you know, before surgery.

And instead, he decides to stay on a contract that, like, I mean, in a very simple sense, let’s say he turns this down.

Um, I guess he couldn’t get the qualifying offer because he was traded for, which is an interesting way to think about it, but like, would he, even from just thinking about it from a value standpoint, like if he was able to get a qualifying offer, he would have easily get a QO, right?

And so I know it’s not relevant because of the context, but This is, I mean, this tells me a lot about, uh, obviously, listen, I was in that club, I was out of game seven.

Shane Bieber was one of the most emotionally impacted by far.

Of course, he gives up the, the, you know, the game-winning home run to Will Smith, but it’s not on Shane Bieber.

The the fact that he was even in that game says a lot more about how that game unfolded than Shane Beaver, the pitcher, and it’s not like him allowing that home run is gonna impact him as a free agent.

But he was very open about how incredible his experience with Toronto was.

This is also someone who just had his first child, you know, in March.

I mean, it’s a shocking thing to, to turn down, to presumably pass up the opportunity to cash in substantially more.

From a life standpoint, it’s not that surprising that he would want to stay with Toronto.

And we should also say it’s very possible that they’re just gonna rework and, and try and because there’s a deadline, right?

He had to decide on the option this week, I think Thursday is the deadline.

And so maybe from a negotiating and just like good faith standpoint, he’s telling Toronto, I’m gonna opt in, maybe they work something out.

Now, Toronto doesn’t have to because they’ve been given this gift.

They can just be like, look, dude, we love you, but like we’re just gonna take this, you want to opt in?

Great.

You’re going to be in at 16 million and we’re just going to keep it for next year at an incredible bargain arguably, and we’ll move forward from there, or they’ll work out something more long term based on, you know, the, the affection that they have from both sides.

But it is, it is a pretty stunning decision from a, from a strict I think the organization.

So yeah, the organization deserves a lot of credit for this.

You hear teams talk about, oh, you know, we want to be a destination, we wanna be good to our players, we wanna have a good environment, and then usually when it all comes down to it, the guys understandably take the money.

Uh, this is the opposite in in that way, and I think that the Blue Jays, both the facilities and the way that the families are treated and the and the whole setup is worth something.

To Bieber, and his experience was so meaningful enough that he has decided to to run it back.

Shane Bieber’s ‘stunning’ opt-in says a lot about Blue Jays culture

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