Reds’ Bauer is making trade for him look good
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When the Cincinnati Reds made the trade for pitcher Trevor Bauer at the deadline last year, they were getting damaged goods. Bauer had been pitching with torn ligaments in his ankle for most of the year. That led to back problems.
His numbers with the Cleveland Indians before the trade were significantly worse than the year before – a 3.79 ERA versus 2.21. But things got much worse after the trade. Bauer went 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA as a Red. He gave up more than a hit an inning and allowed more home runs (12) in 56 1⁄3 innings with the Reds than he did in 175 1⁄3 innings with Cleveland in 2018 (9).
Fans had to wonder: We gave up outfielder Taylor Trammell, the prize of the farm system, for this guy?
But, as bad as the numbers were, Bauer’s confidence was not shaken – not a little bit. This is what he said after his final start last season, a start in which he allowed five runs over seven innings in a 6-3 loss to the New York Mets:
“I’ll go put in more work than anybody else, I’ll have a better process than anybody else, and then I’ll come to spring training and be a top-5 pitcher in spring training, and go into the year and dominate the first month of the season like always and next year will just be a different year.”
Bauer wasn’t lying. In the wacky year that is 2020, we’re just completing the first month of the season. But Bauer has been better than a top-5 pitcher. By most measures, he’s been the best pitcher in baseball. Entering the week, he was 3-0 with a 0.68 ERA, a 0.570 WHIP and a 1.91 FIP (fielding independent pitching). He was allowing 2.7 hits per nine innings and striking out 14.0 per nine innings. His ERA+ is 711.
All of the above marks are the best in Major League Baseball. The striking one is ERA+. It measures a pitcher’s ERA against league average with 100 being league average. The modern record is 291, set by Pedro Martinez in 2000.
Bauer, the 29-year-old righthander, takes analytics and training to a level unseen in baseball. He checks his blood to measure recovery. He throws year-round. He was the first professional client of Driveline, which stresses data-driven training programs. He’s improved each season since the Arizona Diamondbacks picked him third overall in 2011.
If anyone were going to figure things out to come back from last year’s disappointment, it was Bauer.
But still, after getting beaten around in 10 starts for the Reds, how could he be so confident that this year would be so much better?
“I was hurt last year,” he said. “I hurt my ankle, partially tore two ligaments in my ankle in my fourth start of the year. Then it healed up and was fine by the time I got traded, but the cascading effect changed my delivery, changed my mechanics, my back was kind of messed up. I had some stuff in the QL muscle and all that that I couldn’t really get rid of while I was in competition. biggest thing for me. If I can get to two strikes quickly, I do very, very well in 0-2, 1-2 counts. The more of those I have, the better off I’m going to be.”
Hitters were 5-for-51 (.098) with 32 strikeouts after 0-2 and 1-2 counts against Bauer.
Curt Casali caught Bauer’s one-hit, seven-inning shutout in Kansas City last week. The difference between that Bauer and the 2019 Bauer after the trade to the Reds?
“Comfortability,” Casali said. “I think that’s probably a huge one. Coming into a new team in the middle of the season, it’s got to be pretty hard, trying to figure out where he fits in and how to immerse himself into a team. In addition, I don’t think he was completely 100 percent healthy last year. That can be frustrating. It can exacerbate when you’re traded. At the time, we were a losing team. When you lose, things start to hurt a little bit worse.”
Bauer came to the Reds with a bit of a reputation. His last onfield act with Cleveland was throwing the ball over the center-field wall after being removed from a start in Kansas City. He wore a T-shirt commemorating the event during the shutout last week.
Bauer is perhaps the most outspoken player in baseball. He’s taken on Commissioner Rob Manfred and super-agent Scott Boras via Twitter posts. @BauerOutage is a must-follow for baseball fans.
But Bauer has been a model teammate and a media favorite in Cincinnati. He’s doing a vlog (video blog) with Momentum this season, chronicling baseball in the COVID-19 year.
“Mainly, I’m just happy that fans seem to enjoy it,” he said. “That’s the main purpose of what I’m doing – try to give out authentic, kind of behind-thescenes look at what this season is for the players, for myself, for the staff, and just everything involved, what the protocols are, what our life is like – because the fans, they don’t get to see that normally. Especially not being able to come out to the stadium, they don’t get to see baseball in any way. They don’t get to see the players high-fiving and celebrating actually being there at the stadium.
“So just trying to do a service to the fans and connect them in a way that they haven’t been connected before, which is really what Momentum is all about, connecting fans and players on a human level. So it’s been good. I’ve been encouraged with it, and mainly just happy that fans seem to be enjoying it.”
Bauer is a free agent after this year. The Reds will not likely be in a position to pay him market value, although he says he’s not motivated by money.
“I’m motivated by personal achievement, by team achievement,” he said. “I’m motivated by solving puzzles, getting better, stuff like that. If that’s what motivates you, there is no pressure. I go out and try to be the best I am, and I either get there or I don’t. Then I do the same thing the next year, and I get compensated based on what I’ve done.”
So we’ll see with the free agency. But no matter what happens after this season, the trade for Bauer is looking very good right now.