John Schneider hopes Shane Bieber gets cleared for mound work sometime next week.

That update came Saturday, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, and it's real progress for a pitcher who's been out since Aug. 25.

Bieber has been dealing with a right teres major strain, sidelined for going on three weeks now.

He began flat-ground throwing Friday, the first real step in his throwing progression.

He'll likely need another flat-ground session or two before moving to an actual mound.

That timeline matters here. With slightly more than three weeks left in the regular season, the math doesn't leave much room for a full rebuild of his arm strength.

It's now more likely that Bieber has to wait until the postseason, if Toronto gets there, before rejoining the pitching staff at all.

Why the calculus shifts toward a postseason target

Shoulder injuries in pitchers don't get rushed, even during a playoff push where every healthy arm matters.

Flat ground to mound to bullpen to live hitters to a rehab outing is a lot of ground to cover in three weeks, especially for a starter who needs to build real stamina back up.

Toronto has already dealt with a rotation stretched thin by injuries to Jose Berrios, Bowden Francis, Patrick Corbin, Trey Yesavage, and now Jameson Taillon, who just went back on the IL himself.

Adding Bieber into a possible postseason mix, rather than the stretch run itself, is a realistic outcome given how the recovery is actually tracking.

That's not necessarily bad news. If Toronto gets to October, a rested, healthy Bieber could be a real weapon in a short series.

For now, the Blue Jays keep patching together their rotation for the final weeks, with Bieber's eventual return functioning more as a bonus for October than a fix for September.

Whether he ends up throwing off a mound on schedule next week will be the next real checkpoint worth tracking.