Angels: 3 reasons why Trevor Bauer is perfect for LA
Trevor Bauer figures to be the biggest name on the free agent market and while he may have teased at signing with a team in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), in all likelihood, he will be staying stateside. There has never been a clearer fit for the Angels than Trevor Bauer for a variety of reasons, the most prominent amongst them being that Orange County is good for Trevor Bauer.
While Trevor Bauer might be a more outspoken athlete than Angels fans are used to, his liveliness and competitive fire could be just what the Angels’ clubhouse needs. On a team of silent leaders like Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, Trevor Bauer might not be a seamless fit, but he could be an acquired taste. His on-field pitching performance is what matters most and Bauer leaves nothing to be desired as he posted a 1.73 ERA in 2020 across 73 innings pitched. While his first go of things with the Cincinnati Reds was not the best, he more than made up for it in 2020. Bauer has been quite overrated prior to his excellent 2.21 ERA season in 2018, but it appears his Driveline Baseball boys have gotten him on track just in time for free agency bidding.
Bauer attended UCLA so he is something of a local boy and chances are, he would welcome the opportunity to get closer to Hollywood with his media ambitions in the works. He has also mentioned a willingness to take short-term deals, betting with a friend that he would only sign one-year deals for the entirety of his career. That would work perfectly for the Halos who will likely be interested in a short-term commitment with a high average annual value. He can also grow his brand playing with Japan’s brightest star in Shohei Ohtani and America’s biggest baseball star in Mike Trout.
Let’s take a look at the three reasons why Trevor Bauer needs the Halos just as much as they need him.
Local Boy
While Trevor Bauer was born and bred a lot closer to Los Angeles than Anaheim, he would still be a lot closer to him than Cincinnati or Cleveland ever were for him. Trevor Bauer was born in North Hollywood and attended Hart High School in Santa Clarita. He possesses the overall Hollywood persona with a larger than life figure, a budding media enterprise at his fingertips, and his overall demeanor. He is a bulldog on the mound and a very driven individual off of it. Simply put, he has ambitions outside the game of baseball and has been very vocal about them.
Who wouldn’t want to be closer to home? The family is closer. The friends can drive to see your starts. You might even get a home cooked meal or two. None of those have ever really been possible for Bauer and the Angels would allow him that opportunity.
Given the obvious rotation need for Bauer’s services, it could be something of a give and take relationship that might not last longer than one year. Still, the need is obvious and Bauer could slot alongside Shohei Ohtani and Dylan Bundy as the spearheads of a rotation that only gets deeper with his addition.
The One-Year Wonder
Trevor Bauer’s willingness to sign solely one-year deals for the rest of his career has been well-documented and while it is a bit unorthodox, so is Bauer as a person.
The Angels have long given enormous contracts that don’t age well, so why not a change of pace? Trevor Bauer represents that in every way. If the Angels decided to get stupid in a good way and offer Bauer a one-year, $35 million deal, the Angels would likely be in the thick of the AL West divisional race despite being up against luxury tax penalties. However, if it is the price of admission to October, you have to pay it, right?
It’s wild how much deeper the Angels’ rotation gets with one simple addition of Bauer’s caliber. In a six-man rotation to suit Shohei Ohtani’s schedule, depth is a necessity. Being able to make Andrew Heaney your fourth-best starting pitcher is a huge boon for exactly that reason.
The contract flexibility is one that will suit both parties and while a lot of MLB teams will likely be lining up to acquire Bauer, the Angels might be amongst the most well-positioned in the sport to actually land him.
Growing the Bauer Brand
Trevor Bauer is not exactly marketed by Major League Baseball, but the primary reason for that is because Bauer markets himself — and yeah, because he hates Rob Manfred, but we won’t discuss that now. Bauer is heavily involved in Momentum, a budding media company that has earned support from Barstool Sports’ Jared Carrabis.
The sunshine of Southern California is the perfect place for Bauer to continue growing the now infamous Bauer brand alongside glorious men like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. How fun would Bauer-Trout vlogs be? Every Angels fan would enjoy that.
Even if the Angels were to be a classic .500 team and nothing more once again in 2021 with Bauer, at least the season would be fun and tickets would be sold. Who knows, you might get to see Bauer chuck a baseball over the center field fence or see the famous flaunt after every strikeout. Bauer is polarizing — that might be an understatement — but he is a very good pitcher and a fun human being.
The Halos don’t just need Bauer’s mound presence, Bauer needs the Halos’ culture.