Jake Bauers has traveled quite the baseball journey to reach this point.
Maybe the best summary of the odd career he has had is this: His Wins Above Replacement this season for the Milwaukee Brewers measured at 3.3. His career WAR is just 2.0 — meaning he rocketed out of the negatives just this year.
Before this, he’s been a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, the Cleveland then-Indians, the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees — not to mention the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres solely in their minor league systems.
For a time, Bauers was a highly regarded prospect, but until this season, it never really came together.
This season has been magic for Bauers with the Brewers — 26 home runs, 86 RBI, 11 stolen bases and an .874 OPS. Through Game 2 of the NLCS, he’s batting .263 with a .725 OPS in these playoffs as Milwaukee tries to make the World Series.
Bauers is 31 years old now, having celebrated his birthday on Oct. 6, and he’s called a lot of baseball hats his home before finally proving he belongs.
Jake Bauers’ Wandering Baseball Journey
Bauers was originally a seventh-round pick by the Padres out of Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California, back in the 2013 MLB Draft.
The Padres traded him away a year-and-a-half later to the Tampa Bay Rays as part of a massive three-team deal that also involved the Washington Nationals. The Nats got Trea Turner in that trade, while the Padres got Wil Myers and the Rays got Steven Souza Jr.
Bauers did end up debuting for the Rays before he was traded four years later, in December 2018, as part of a three-team trade with Cleveland and Seattle. Cleveland got Bauers and Carlos Santana, the Mariners got Edwin Encarnacion and the Rays got Yandy Diaz and Cole Sulser.
Bauers moved to the Mariners in June 2021 when Cleveland traded him for a player to be named later, who ended up turning into Damon Casetta-Stubbs, who never made the majors.
After the 2021 season, Bauers was a free agent for the first time. He signed with the Reds but didn’t make the majors before the Yankees acquired him from the Reds in June 2022.
By the end of 2022, Bauers was a free agent again, but he signed to stay with the Yankees. They eventually traded him in November 2023 to the Brewers for minor leaguers Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez.
Bauers has been with the Brewers since.
Jake Bauers Stats
In his debut season with Tampa Bay, Bauers hit .201 with a .700 OPS and 11 homers in 96 games.
In his two seasons with Cleveland, he had a .218 average, .656 OPS and 14 homers in 160 games.
His lone Mariners action featured 72 games in 2021 with a .572 OPS and only two homers.
With the Yankees, Bauers played 84 games and had a .202 average with a .693 OPS and 12 home runs.
But with Milwaukee, he has a .785 OPS across three seasons with 45 home runs — including the career-high 26 this season. Finally, after his long journey, Bauers has found his home.
Jake Bauers Wasn’t Wanted by Yankees or Cleveland, but Now Stars for Brewers