All one has to do to know that there is a need for Trevor Bauer in Major League Baseball is look at the disabled list. Since Bauer last pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021, injuries have sidelined dozens upon dozens of pitchers, opening up spots on Major League rosters – spots that the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner could very easily have filled.
Heck, Trevor Bauer was and probably still is a better pitcher than a large portion of the healthy pitchers in Major League Baseball. Sure, he is 35-years-old now, but considering that he has only pitched around 380 innings over the past three years for various foreign and independent baseball teams, his arm isn’t 35 yet.
Prior to being blackballed by Major League Baseball, and let’s face it, that is the only explanation for why no team has signed him, Trevor Bauer had a career 3.79 ERA and 1.24 WHIP over 10 seasons. The past three years, with those foreign and independent teams his ERA was around 3.20 and his WHIP was around 1.18. So he can still pitch.
Bauer threw a complete game, seven-inning no-hitter in his most recent start for the Long Island Ducks. He says he will play for free. No one has ever charged him with a crime. So what’s the holdup?
Albert Pujols thinks there is still something Trevor Bauer needs to do to be welcome back in MLB
According to future first-ballot Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, there is something Trevor Bauer still needs to do before Major League Baseball will welcome him back.
“I think he needs to clear up the issues with MLB first before he gets to this level. I think one thing with Trevor Bauer was that he went against MLB, and you can’t go against the hands that really feeds you,” Pujols recently told Fox News.
“I had an opportunity to play with him with the Dodgers. Who doesn’t want to have Trevor Bauer on their team? Of course,” Pujols said. “But I think at the end of the day, you know, he’s still trying, but he needs to clear out what his issue is with MLB.”
Albert Pujols isn’t the only former Dodgers’ teammate of Bauer who would like to see him back in MLB
In October 2023, Dodgers star Mookie Betts said, “My experience with Bauer is not anything remotely close to what everyone else’s experience is. I love him. I think he’s an awesome guy. The personal things? I have no control. I have no say. Obviously, nothing ever came from it.
“He’s an awesome pitcher. He’s a great guy, somebody who wants to take the mound every fifth day. But, at the end of the day, I don’t make the decision. That’s a decision that’s not as simple as baseball.”
That much is certainly obvious.
“I could put up a 0.00 ERA and strike out more people than Mason Miller and it wouldn’t change anything,” the New York Post reports Bauer said. “I’ve known what this is the entire time. I’m blackballed. I’m not allowed to play Major League Baseball. … I’ve literally offered to pay my entire salary back and play for zero dollars. When I say there’s nothing I can do, that everything is completely out of my control, I have offered everything. It just doesn’t matter.”