Albuquerque Journal

Bauer returning home to play with Dodgers

Defending champs now have three Cy Young winners on staff

- BY BETH HARRIS

LOS ANGELES — Trevor Bauer is coming home to pitch for the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner announced his decision Friday in a two-minute video posted to his Twitter account. Bauer narrated the piece, which ended with him saying, “This season is about making sure history remembers us as we wish to be remembered. This season is about adding to our legacy. And I can’t wait, Dodger fans.”

The Dodgers made it worth his while: His contract is for $102 million over three years, according to multiple media reports.

The video was titled “MY NEW HOME!!!” and the credits said it was written by Bauer, who wore a Dodgers jersey and cap. He tossed a baseball from one hand to the other.

Bauer, who turned 30 last month, was born in North Hollywood, went to high school in Santa Clarita and played baseball at UCLA.

The right-handed free agent also was negotiatin­g with the New York

Mets. Bauer’s agent, Rachel Luba, tweeted, “So excited for your next chapter with the @Dodgers, Trevor Bauer.”

For the second straight year, the Dodgers had a mostly quiet offseason before making a blockbuste­r deal in February. In 2020, they traded for outfielder Mookie Betts and pitcher David Price, who opted out last season because of the pandemic. Price is expected back this year.

Price tweeted his reaction: three flushed face emojis and “WOW!!”

Bauer joins a Dodgers rotation that had a major league-best 3.02 ERA during the abbreviate­d 60-game season last year, when the franchise won its first championsh­ip since 1988. He gives the club a third Cy Young winner, joining three-time winner Clayton Kershaw and 2012 winner Price. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Dodgers are the first team to have three former Cy Young winners in their rotation since the Detroit Tigers in 2014 had Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Price.

With the upcoming season expanding from 60 games to a full 162 game s, the Dodgers can go seven-deep in their rotation.

Bauer is 75-64 with a 3.90 ERA in nine major league seasons that included a career-best 17-9 with a 4.19 ERA for Cleveland in 2017. He was an All-Star the following year, going 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA.

Bauer was 5-4 in his second season with Cincinnati and his 1.73 ERA was second in the major leagues among qualified pitchers behind only Cleveland’s Shane Bieber at 1.63. Bauer earned $6,481,481 in prorated pay from a $17.5 million salary.

Bauer has caused controvers­y on social media. A female college student claimed to USA Today in 2019 that Bauer harassed her on Twitter, accusing him of retweeting an old tweet of her referring to drinking alcohol before her 21st birthday. USA Today said there were 80 tweets of Bauer that mentioned her and 20 of her that mentioned the pitcher. Bauer tweeted the woman “was obsessed with me.”

He took after baseball owners for the sport’s economics last May during bargaining to start the pandemic-delayed season.

“There’s so many ways to hide the money,” he said, adding owners could reduce ticket prices and at the same time charge more for parking garages they control through different entities that do not benefit the club. … If I’m going to have to trust my salary to Rob Manfred marketing the game to make more money for the game, I am out on that. Let me market the game and we’ll all make more money.”

Bauer also has had an apparent ongoing rift with Houston Astro and Albuquerqu­e native Alex Bregman, mostly via social media and most recently early last year when the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal had blown up. Bauer then took a shot at Bregman’s tepid apology. “That’s the thing, like, he’s a great player,” Bauer said of Bregman, per the Cincinnati Enquirer. “They are all great players with or without it. But now, no one in the league respects them for anything they do.”

Bauer and Bregman also were going at it as early as 2018, when Bauer accused Houston’s pitchers of cheating to increase ball spin rate, Bregman responded by calling Bauer “Tyler” on Twitter, and homered off Bauer in the postseason that year. When Bauer beat the Astros early in 2019, he famously tweeted a video of him taunting a Bregman bobblehead: “What’s up little buddy? Did I dominate you last night?” as the Bregman bobblehead noddled.

Because Bauer turned down an $18.9 million qualifying offer, Los Angeles will forfeit its second-highest pick in the July amateur draft and $500,000 of internatio­nal signing bonus allocation.

Cincinnati will receive an extra draft pick after competitiv­e balance round B, approximat­ely No. 60, as compensati­on.

 ?? AARON DOSTER/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? Trevor Bauer, who won the NL Cy Young Award while with the Cincinnati Reds last season, will be returning home to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season.
AARON DOSTER/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Trevor Bauer, who won the NL Cy Young Award while with the Cincinnati Reds last season, will be returning home to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season.
 ?? KAMIL KRZACZYNSK­I/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? Trevor Bauer, who played for Cincinnati last season, will be joining a Dodgers staff that now will have three Cy Young winners.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSK­I/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Trevor Bauer, who played for Cincinnati last season, will be joining a Dodgers staff that now will have three Cy Young winners.

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