Indians Celebrate Shane Bieber's Amazing Leap and Name Him Opening Day Starter

Shane Bieber has come a long way since the Cleveland Indians called him up in 2018. When he first broke into the league, he was viewed as a back-end arm in the rotation, and in 2019, he entered the year once again on the fringe of the starting staff.

But now, after an All-Star caliber season that netted him a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young voting, he's set to be the team's Opening Day starter.

It's a fantastic jump for Bieber, who was nothing short of brilliant in 2019 after a rather pedestrian rookie campaign the year prior.

Last year, he made 33 starts for the Indians, logging a 3.28 ERA and 259 strikeouts in the process. He also posted a league-low free pass rate of 1.7 walks per nine innings. It's amazing to think that in the season prior, he was just another young arm to bolster the back end of a rotation featuring Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber.

Thanks to such a superb season, he now has the opportunity to be the ace of a Cleveland Indians squad that's looking to prove its doubters wrong in 2020.