When no Major League Baseball team was willing to give Trevor Bauer a second chance, he took his career to Japan.
The early returns have not been promising.
Bauer was rocked in his latest start for the Yokohama DeNa Baystars, allowing seven earned runs and eight hits in only two innings of work. He struck out just a single batter and was lifted from the game after 69 pitches.
It is the second start in a row where he produced brutal numbers, while his ERA for the season is approaching 9.00 in only three appearances.
Bauer has not pitched in the major leagues since the 2021 season when he was placed on administrative leave while he was investigated for sexual assault. On April 29, 2022, he was officially suspended 324 games by Major League Baseball (the equivalent of two full seasons).
That suspension was later reduced to 194 games this past December, a development that immediately reinstated him to play in the Majors.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, however, wasted little time in designating him for assignment and eventually releasing him.
No other team was willing to touch him.
Bauer’s early struggles are almost certainly related to being off from baseball for nearly two years, while also trying to adjust to an entirely new style of play, in a new league, and in a new country.
Still, if there was any chance for him to get another look in the Major Leagues it was not only going to take him coming back and being a good citizen, but also pitching at an extraordinarily high level to make it worth any team to take the PR hit to sign him.
So far, he has not pitched at anything close to that level. It will probably a long time before we see him pitching in North America again.
