Guardians' Shane Bieber emotional discussing elbow injury - ESPN

CLEVELAND — Shane Bieber held it together Monday for as long as he could.

The Cleveland Guardians ace has spent the past few days trying to process his new reality: Tommy John surgery and not pitching again this season.

It has been harder than he imagined.

His voice choked with emotion, Bieber paused while speaking to reporters for the first time since deciding to have the surgery, a procedure that will end his 2024 season.

Bieber, who missed more than two months last season with elbow issues, somehow gutted out two starts — 12 scoreless innings and 20 strikeouts against Oakland and Seattle — before succumbing to pain.

He's now suffering in a different way, and Bieber is still struggling to accept that he has to move forward.

«Baseball will be there,» the 2020 Cy Young winner said, speaking softly. «I will be here. It's easy to keep things in perspective. It's just an injury that I'll get past. I'm not the first person, won't be the last. One of the things that is a bit more difficult for me is that throughout the offseason and in spring training, I did figure some things out and my performance was getting back to the place that I knew I was capable of.

»I was falling back in love with pitching, and I was having a lot of fun."

Bieber hasn't yet scheduled the surgery, but he intends to have it done as soon as possible so he can begin a lengthy rehab and recovery.

Bieber, 28, who is in his final year under contract, said he initially felt soreness in his Opening Day start against the Athletics. He chalked it up to being his first outing but sensed it was something more.

He took the mound against the Mariners last week knowing he would have to push his elbow to the limit.

«It was either it goes away or it's surgery,» he