Righty Mike Clevinger will be second in the rotation, and Carlos Carrasco is slated to start the third game. So far this summer, the Indians have gone with Bieber-Clevinger-Carrasco 1-2-3 in instrasquad scrimmages.
While it's unclear at this moment who Cleveland will go with as its 4th and 5th arms in the rotation, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac and Adam Plutko are battling for those spots.
Francona did mention on Thursday that a six-man rotation isn’t off the table.
This will be the first year that Bieber holds the title of the Indians' ace on the staff, after the Tribe traded Corey Kluber to the Rangers in the off-season, and Trevor Bauer to the Reds last season.
The 25-year old was the 2019 MLB All-Star Game MVP at Progressive Field in Cleveland. He went 15-8 last season and with a 3.28 ERA, racking up 259 Ks.
Last week, in an intrasquad scrimmage, Bieber was confident he'd be ready to go for the July 24th Opening Day date.
“At this point now, I think everybody is ready to put their foot on the gas and get going and ramp up the best we can," Bieber said. "I feel we're going to be in a really good spot because of it.”
In the Cleveland Indians latest intrasquad game, Tito's Titans topped Barney's Bunch, 6-3. Bradley Zimmer hit a two-run homer and has gone deep three times over the last two games.
Greg Allen also went yard with a two-run homer and drove in three.
On the hill on Thursday, Carlos Carrasco allowed three runs over five innings and struck out five.