The Yokohama Bay Stars are bringing back Trevor Bauer, who last pitched in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers in June 2021, the Japanese club announced Monday.
It will be Bauer’s second stint in Japan — he spent 2023 with the Bay Stars, where he went 11-4 with a 2.59 ERA in 24 starts.
Bauer, 34, spent 2024 pitching for Diablos Rojos del Mexico in the Mexican League. He went 10-0 with a 2.48 ERA for the Red Devils of Mexico, a team that also included former major leaguers Robinson Canó, Franklin Barreto and Jeurys Familia.
Bauer, the No. 3 pick out of UCLA by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2011, pitched for four teams during 10 seasons in the majors. He made an All-Star team for Cleveland in 2018 and won the National League Cy Young Award during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when he went 5-4 with a 1.73 ERA with 100 strikeouts over 73 innings for the Cincinnati Reds.
Bauer then signed a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers. After making 17 starts with Los Angeles, Bauer was placed on paid administrative leave by MLB in July 2021 after a San Diego woman accused him of sexual assault during an encounter that began as consensual and, she said, turned violent. The Washington Post reported similar allegations from two other women that summer. Bauer denied any wrongdoing.
In February 2022, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office declined to press charges against him.
The league later suspended Bauer in April 2022 for two full seasons (324 games) without pay for violating its joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. The suspension followed “an extensive investigation by MLB’s Department of Investigations,” the league said in a statement.
An arbitration panel later reduced Bauer’s suspension to 194 games — the longest suspension the league has levied since its policy went in place in 2015. The Dodgers released him on Jan. 12, 2023.
(Photo: Alfredo Estrella / AFP via Getty Images)