Getty Yankees are said to have no interest in the "headache" of signing Trevor Bauer.
With Gerrit Cole now slated to be out for at least a month and perhaps longer with an elbow injury, the Yankees are left pondering what to do next. While revisiting an offer for Cy Young Award-winning free-agent Blake Snell is an option, though one the team is not keen on, reports suggest that a renewed push for a trade with the White Sox for Dylan Cease is the preferred remedy.
One solution apparently already off the table for the Yankees: a low-cost signing of starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, who was reinstated by MLB last year after a 194-game suspension following an accusation of sexual assault at his home in Pasadena in June 2021.
Longtime MLB writer Bob Klapisch of NJ.com wrote this week that the Yankees—like the rest of MLB, apparently—want nothing to do with Bauer, even if he still can pitch and even if the injury to Cole is more dire than expected.
Wrote Klapisch: “As for Bauer, one person close to (owner Hal) Steinbrenner said, simply, ‘no chance, we don’t need the headache’ of adding a player accused of sexual violence towards women.”
Trevor Bauer Cleared of Charges
That headache has been enough to keep Bauer sidelined from a return to the majors, even after the resolution of his suspension and the dropping of all charges against him because of a lack of evidence. Even an injury like Cole’s can’t get a team in a big market like the Yankees to budge.
Bauer is 33 years old and had a sterling career until the accusations, which came with unsightly photos of the alleged victim, Lindsey Hill, came to light. At the time, Hill presented hospital records that, according to the Los Angeles Times, “said she had been diagnosed with ‘acute head injury’ and ‘assault by manual strangulation’ in the wake of a sexual encounter.”
The 2021 season was Bauer’s first in Los Angeles, and had a record to 8-5 with a 2.59 ERA. The Dodgers had signed Bauer to a three-year, $102 million contract that spring.
Bauer had won a Cy Young Award in 2018, when he went 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA for Cleveland. For his career, he is 83-69 with a 3.9 ERA and 1,416 strikeouts in 1,297 innings.
But, unable to get a deal with a major-league club last year, he instead pitched in Japan, where he went 11-4 with a 2.59 ERA in 24 games.
Despite all resolution to his legal woes, Bauer remains blackballed by baseball, and his time for getting back into the game is running short
Still No Yankees Interest
Don’t expect the Yankees to be the team that changes that. In fact, Bauer has not come close to finding a deal with any team and, last week, pitched against Dodgers minor-leaguers with a Japanese traveling team called Asian Breeze.
While Bauer looked sharp in the outing, hitting 99 mph with his fastball, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that there were no scouts or front-office executives in the crowd to watch Bauer pitch. That can be taken as an indication that no team is willing to step into the breach and sign him.
Bauer said that’s not exactly fair—he has paid all the prices he has been asked to pay legally and by MLB. He is not looking for money. He’d be willing to take the league minimum.
“I mean if you think about it, I should have the opportunity to sign with a big league team,’’ Bauer said, via Nightengale. “I’m just asking for the league minimum, so it’s not a money thing. I’ve served my suspension twice over. I’ve been cleared of everything in the legal system.
“If you think about it logically, there’s really no reason I shouldn’t have a job. But I don’t. So, it is what it is. We’ll see how it plays out. I don’t want to predict the future. We’ll see.’’