Former Cy Young Trevor Bauer Set to Pitch Against Los Angeles Dodgers at Spring Training
Longtime MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer has joined Asian Breeze, a Japanese travel team, the organization announced Thursday.
Bauer, 33, will make his debut for the team in an exhibition against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
Los Angeles has two Spring Training games scheduled for that day. One is against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Cactus League play and the other is against the Breeze.
The Dodgers are expected to use mostly minor league players against the Breeze, per The Los Angeles Times, while the big leaguers will play the late game against the D-Backs.
As a result, Bauer's chance to show out against his former team won't exactly be a heavyweight matchup.
Bauer hasn't pitched at the MLB level since 2021, when he was accused of sexual assault. The right-hander was placed on leave for the remainder of the season and eventually suspended for all of 2022.
Even after his suspension was shortened and lifted at the start of 2023, the Dodgers released Bauer. He wound up signing with the Yokohama DeNa BayStars, spending last season in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.
One of Bauer’s several cases was settled in the fall with no money changing hands, which spurred the righty to officially pursue a comeback in MLB. As of early February, however, Bauer had not earned a contract offer from any of the league's 30 clubs.
Bauer tried to pick up public relation points by filming a video with Barstool Sports a few weeks later, but he was instantly mocked online for giving up multiple hits to blogger Marty Mush.
Across his 10 seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, Bauer went 83-69 with a 3.79 ERA, 1.243 WHIP, 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings and a 21.1 WAR.
Bauer was peaking right before he was blackballed by the league, going 36-28 with a 3.07 ERA, 1.095 WHIP, 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings and a 13.5 WAR from 2018 to 2021. He won the NL Cy Young with the Reds in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, two years after finishing sixth in AL Cy Young voting as a member of the Indians.
During his time in Japan, Bauer went 11-4 with a 2.59 ERA, 1.130 WHIP and 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
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