Trevor Bauer, winner of the 2020 National League Cy Young Award, has agreed to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the California resident announced his move in a YouTube video on Friday.
Bauer and the Dodgers have agreed to a $ 102 million three-year contract with exit options after Years 1 and 2, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Bauer is expected to make $ 40 million by 2021 and $ 45 million by 2022, the sources said.
Bauer, who has a notable social media presence, appeared to mock his fate on Friday by offering a gift for a Dodgers-signed cap on his website, although he also had several brief references to the New York Mets, believed to be who the other finalist, also on the site.
Sources told Passan that the Mets offered a higher total value than the Dodgers, but the Los Angeles offering will make him the highest-paid player in each of the next two seasons.
The 30-year-old right-handed is the first reigning Cy Young Award winner to work on free agency since Greg Maddux in 1992.
Bauer, a first free agent to play for the Cincinnati Reds last season in a $ 17 million deal worth $ 6.4 million, was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball in 2020, 5-4, ERA. 1.73, WHIP of .79, 100 strikeouts and 17 walks shortened during the season by the pandemic. Opponents batted him .159 and led all Major League-pitchers. In addition to the WHIP and ERA, Bauer led the National League in ERA-plus, which is in line with his butcher-friendly home stadium, and in the number of hits allowed per nine innings (5,055) in 2020.
He turned down an $ 18.9 million one-year qualifying offer from the Reds, who will receive a compensatory draft pick by signing with a new team. The Dodgers lose their second-highest choice in July’s amateur draft and an international signing bonus of $ 500,000.
Bauer joins a Dodgers rotation that was one of the best in the majors in 2020 and now has three former Cy Young winners in Bauer, Clayton Kershaw and David Price. Last season, the Dodgers took first place in WHIP and second in the opponent’s ERA, batting average and OPS.
Bauer’s arsenal spans a variety of pitches, and he had great success with his cut fastball while throwing two shutouts in two complete games last season. According to ESPN Data, Bauer was preparing batters to knock them out in the outside half of the plate, leading the National League with 63 strikeouts while holding batters to a .145 batting average at that site.
Off the mound, Bauer has voiced opinions and criticisms on everything from Commissioner Rob Manfred to MLB-MLBPA negotiations and hinting that Houston Astros pitchers applied substances to baseballs to increase spin speed. In 2018, Bauer was fined for throwing a baseball off the mound over the fence of the center field before being thrown out of a game. In 2016, he was pulled from his Game 2 opening of the American League Championship Series after cutting his fingertip while servicing his drone.
The Reds acquired Bauer in a trade with the Cleveland Indians on the July 2019 deadline. He made 10 starts after the deal that year, 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA for the Reds.
In nine seasons since breaking through in the majors with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012, Bauer is 75-64 with 1,279 strikeouts and a 3.90 ERA. His only All-Star roster came in 2018.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.