Trevor Bauer is coming off a stellar year where he won the NL Cy Young and pitched to an absurd 1.73 ERA. Bauer pitched 73 innings in 11 starts in the shortened season and had a 2.7 WAR. Bauer also had a very impressive postseason start in the Wild Card round when he pitched 7.2 scoreless innings giving up 0 walks and only 2 hits. Bauer left that playoff game with a no-decision and the Reds lost 1-0 in 13 innings.
Bauer has set himself up to get paid big time this offseason. He is by far the best starting pitcher on the market and coming off a Cy Young season that means he’ll have a big price tag next to his name. Trevor Bauer is a hard person to read, you never know exactly what he is thinking and that makes it hard to predict where he will be signing in the next couple months. Bauer likes to troll the internet and give off hints as if he’s signing somewhere but he has been doing this to numerous fan bases, for example, today he posted a video of himself wearing a Yankees hat to troll Jared Carrabis of Barstool Sports.
It’s unclear what kind of deal Bauer is looking at, he has said in the past that he would only be signing one year deals for the rest of his career, but his agent said they’ll be considering all types of deals. It’s clear that Bauer will be signing with a contender or teams like the Blue Jays with exciting young players.
Let's look at some scenarios….
San Diego Padres- The Padres are a very fun team and are clearly looking to win now. Bauer makes a huge difference on this team and would take over as the ace of the staff. The Padres problem is they don’t have the pitching to keep up with the Dodgers bats. The Padres have a very good line up anchored by Tatis and Machado, and a rotation of Bauer-Clevinger-Lamet-Paddack can compete with any team come October. Plus who wouldn’t want to get paid to live in San Diego?
New York Mets - Steve Cohen has unlimited money and I’m sure he would not hesitate to throw the bag to Bauer. Again, adding Bauer to this rotation would make them one of, if not the best in baseball. deGrom-Bauer-Syndergaard-Stroman … C’mon now..
New York Yankees- The Yankees are currently in a window to win now and it's closing very fast. The Bronx Bombers have made it to the playoffs the last 4 seasons and all 4 times they didn’t have enough pitching to move on. Gerrit Cole is the Yankees ace but it's clear they need a 1B type starter. J.A. Happ was pitching Game 2 of the ALDS, that's all you need to know. Bauer makes the Yankees a serious threat.
Los Angeles Angels - Simple as this, the Angels are desperate. The Angels might overpay Bauer and honestly you wouldn’t be able to blame them. They need pitching. The Angels need to build a playoff team around Mike Trout and get him to October. Ohtani and Rendon were good starts, but they need Bauer to anchor their staff and should do whatever is necessary to get him.
Toronto Blue Jays - The Blue Jays probably aren’t ready to win it all just yet, they surprised a lot of people when they arrived in the postseason out of nowhere last season. They have a really good young core who are under control for years to come. The Blue Jays have indicated that they are willing to spend and make moves to speed up the process and Bauer would be a good start.
Atlanta Braves - The Braves won their first playoff series since 2001 and then gave the Dodgers a run for their money in the NLCS. The Braves are a very good team and are definitely in win now mode. A lineup with Acuña and Albies and of course NL MVP Freddie Freeman is ready to win a championship. Soroka missed tore his achilles in his first start and missed the rest of the 2020 season but Max Fried and a pair of rookies in Ian Anderson and Kyle Wright were able to carry the Braves through the rest of the regular season and postseason. Add Soroka and Bauer to that staff and that becomes one of the best teams in baseball.
Bauer is clearly signing with a team that has championship hopes and his presence will make whatever team he signs with one of the favorites to win a World Series. But until then we’ll just have to wait and let him troll us all on Twitter until he signs.
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