logo
Former MLB reliever Adam Ottavino heaps praise on Shane Bieber
alt
Photo credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
Ian Hunter
Aug 29, 2025, 07:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 29, 2025, 06:02 EDT
Comments
Shane Bieber is one start into the season with the Blue Jays, and his games have already become appointment viewing. Bieber put on a masterclass last Friday against the Miami Marlins, holding them to two hits over six innings, while striking out nine batters. It was one of the best starts for a Blue Jay this season.
And that was from a pitcher who had just returned from Tommy John surgery, making his first start in 15 months. It turns out the fans weren’t the only ones drooling in awe after Bieber’s Blue Jays debut; so too were those with close ties to MLB.
If you haven’t watched it already, I highly recommend watching former MLB reliever Adam Ottavino’s breakdown of Bieber’s start from last Friday. Ottavino does a pitch-by-pitch analysis of all of Bieber’s 87 pitches from that game. As a guy who had a successful 15-year big league career, it was interesting to hear Ottavino’s take on this game.
The video below is approximately 34 minutes long, but for those who want the TL;DR version, Ottavino was impressed with what he saw from Bieber in that game. These were some of Ottavino’s choice quotes from the video.
“[Bieber’s] looking special. [He’s] going to be a huge factor in this pennant race.”
When the Blue Jays acquired Bieber, he was probably the biggest wild card of any player moved at the deadline. If the Blue Jays were getting anything close to the 2022 iteration of Bieber, it would be a slam dunk for Toronto, even if Bieber doesn’t re-sign with the Blue Jays. Ottavino didn’t undersell the impact a starter like this can have on a playoff race.
“He’s showing elite rise, elite drop. Two variations on shorter breaking balls and elite command through two batters.”
One thing that especially impressed Ottavino was Bieber’s ability to move the batter’s eye around the zone with his rising fastball and his diving changeup. Two batters into the game, Bieber struck out Xavier Edwards and Jakob Marsee.
“Have you seen how many perfect pitches he’s thrown? It’s not normal. It’s exceptional.”
Sure, when I’m called “not normal” in grade school, it’s an insult. But when it’s used for an MLB pitcher, it’s a compliment. Ottavino loved how even Bieber’s “misses” weren’t genuine mistakes in the zone, as Bieber may have left only three or four cookies over the plate his entire start.
“This is a ridiculous pitch. Look at this: 20.3 inches of vert. So not only does the hitter think this ball is going to be low, he thinks it might be outside. It just sneaks back like a freaking laser to the down and away spot. Nothing you can do if you’re a hitter. You just got dotted. That was sick.”
This was the pitch Bieber threw to Agustin Ramirez: a fastball painted on the outside corner. In that situation, in that count, Bieber could not have executed it more perfectly.
“He’s just got such an array of breaking pitches between the cutter, the slider and the curveball. They’re all distinct; they’re all different. I think especially the cutter and the slider are really hard to tell apart. He’s getting crazy chase in this game.”
Bieber got crazy chased against the Marlins, that’s for sure. He had a 57% out-of-zone swing percentage on his slider, 50% on his changeup, 40% on his cutter and 40% on his knuckle curveball.
“I’m getting fired up. I’m starting to think that the Blue Jays are in a great spot between Bieber, Bassitt, Lauer, Gausman, Varland, Scherzer. They’ve got some dudes now on the mound.”
As Bieber pitched deeper into the game, you could sense Ottavino knew he was witnessing something special. He may have oversold the overall quality of the Blue Jays starting rotation, but unlike other teams, Toronto has more starters than they need to get them to the postseason and deep into October. Adding Bieber to the group brought the potential for a bona fide shutdown ace in the playoffs.
“[Bieber’s] tough to figure out because he’s got a lot of good weapons.”
The dangerous thing about Bieber’s repertoire is that he doesn’t have one or two plus pitches; he might have as many as four in his arsenal. When he’s coming at hitters with five different pitches, all of which he can command and throw in any count, that must be mind-boggling for opposing hitters.
“The way he’s been using the cutter, the slider and the curveball, it’s like a triangle of three breaking ball shapes is special. And on top of that, he’s throwing a plus changeup and his fastball velocity is better than before he was hurt. This is not just a good pickup. This could win them the AL East.”
Ottavino mentioned Bieber’s increased fastball velocity, which maxed out at 93.7 mph during his start against the Marlins. That’s significant because his maximum fastball velocity before his Tommy John surgery in 2024 was also 93.7 mph, and he averaged 88.4 mph on the radar gun.
“All these pitches are perfect. This is Jacob deGrom-esque. He’s putting on a masterclass in this game.”
Any time you get a comp to a two-time Cy Young award winner and a five-time All-Star, that’s huge praise. To put Bieber in the same company as Jacob deGrom is very encouraging.
“This pitch is filth. It’s all about command. So many times you throw a great one with two strikes and then you tell yourself to throw a nastier one, then you do some dumb shit like pull it down the middle. But he doesn’t. He throws the exact same pitch he did and Edwards is toast. And execution master.”
This might have been the best changeup of Bieber’s entire outing; a changeup that pretends to be a strike for a fleeting moment, then nosedives into the dirt.
“There’s no doubt that he has a better changeup now than he had before, so that’s exciting to see. Because in 2024, the changeup averaged 6 vert. This game, he averaged -1 vert, so he’s added 7 inches of drop to his changeup. That’s a pretty good trick. So, I’m going to go ahead and argue that he might be better than before.”
“Might be better than before”. Whoo, boy. Anytime a pitcher adds seven inches of vertical drop to their changeup, watch out. To give you an idea of what echelon Bieber is entering, Logan Webb, one of the best changeup artists in the game, has 5.7 inches of vertical break on his changeup this season. Bieber had 1.6 inches of break, which, if he qualified, would put him 12th on the pitch break leaderboard for most vertical movement on his changeup.
If you weren’t already hyped enough to watch Bieber pitch again, having a former MLB reliever like Ottavino marvel at Bieber’s Blue Jay debut may have been enough to carve out your schedule later this evening for some appointment viewing.
Celebrate Vladdy’s big news in style with the exclusive new BlueJaysNation Vladdy merch — available only at NationGear.ca! Rep a future Hall of Famer and wear your team’s pride loud. Limited drop. Don’t miss out.

Featured

Editorials

Breaking News