As the Toronto Blue Jays begin their 2026 season, four of their injured pitchers are making progress towards a return to the team.
Both Bieber and Yesavage, who are with the team in Toronto for Opening Day, are scheduled to throw off a mound early next week.
For Bieber, it will mark his first time off a mound this spring after entering camp with arm fatigue.
The plan for the former Cy Young-winner was to have a slower ramp-up to the season as he worked through his arm issues.
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Bieber underwent an MRI during the off-season that showed “nothing was wrong, just forearm fatigue,” Schneider said. He returned from Tommy John surgery last August and helped the Blue Jays reach the World Series.
The 30-year-old right-hander ended up making seven regular-season starts for Toronto, throwing 40.1 innings while striking out 37 and posting a 3.57 ERA.
Yesavage, meanwhile, will be back in action after throwing in a minor-league game in Dunedin, Fla., on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old is starting the season on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement. Toronto’s 2024 first-round pick surged to the majors in 2025 after starring at all four levels of the minors and eventually made nine combined appearances for the Blue Jays between the regular and post-season.
Finally, right-handers Berríos and García threw side sessions earlier Friday at Toronto’s Player Development Complex.
Both are also on the injured list as the new season arrives, as Berríos was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right elbow in mid-March and García continues to work back from elbow surgery that ended his 2025 in September.
Next steps will be determined by how they both feel on Saturday.
Berríos’s stress fracture was discovered in a meeting with Dr. Keith Meister after the right-hander was denied insurance to pitch in the World Baseball Classic.
The issue is separate from what sidelined the 31-year-old at the end of last season, when he threw 166 innings with a 4.17 ERA.
