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For the first time in five years, former Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer is back pitching in the United States, but his new team comes with a fairly big caveat.
Bauer, who won the National League Cy Young in 2020 before being suspended for 324 games, which was ultimately reduced to 194, for violating the Major League Baseball Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Child Abuse Policy.
Since that point, Bauer has bounced around various international leagues from Mexico to Japan, all the while making excuses for his poor performance and claiming that he’d been blackballed by MLB.
In reality, Bauer’s numbers have shown that he’s nowhere near the level necessary to return to an MLB team. And even if he were, he’s not good enough for teams to want to deal with the headache that is Trevor Bauer.
Even still, one U.S. team did finally cave and give Bauer an opportunity.
Trevor Bauer Signs With Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks
On Thursday, the Long Island Ducks announced that they had agreed to a deal with Bauer, who is scheduled to be their Opening Day starter on April 21st.
🚨 PLAYER SIGNING 🚨
10-year @MLB veteran and 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner @BauerOutage is the newest member of the Ducks! He is currently slated to serve as the our opening night starter on Tuesday, April 21st!
📰: https://t.co/VLUwmEcLBm pic.twitter.com/gdoBU6Pcyp
— Long Island Ducks (@LIDucks) April 2, 2026
If you’re sitting here wondering which MLB team the Ducks are affiliated with, you can stop searching. Long Island plays in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, which is an independent league that is a partner of the MLB, but clubs are not affiliates of MLB teams.
It has regularly featured marquee players such as Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Francisco Rodriguez, and Juan Gonzalez.
But there is no path to promotion for Bauer. If he wants to make the big leagues, he will need to sign with another club, either at the Major League or Minor League level.
Bauer will likely spin this as a positive. He will tell his fans he’s making it closer to an MLB return. But the Atlantic League is still a far, far cry away from the big leagues. And in all reality, he’s likely played his last game not just in Major League Baseball, but for any MLB team’s farm system as well.