Dodgers Land Trevor Bauer To Put Rotation Over The Top

Photo Credit: Trevor Bauer YouTube Channel 

The Dodgers sign Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer to a three-year deal worth a total of $102 million which include opt-outs each year.

The headline really says it all as the Dodgers land another ace in their rotation and have the cards stacked to dominate the National League once again. After months of speculation and trolling with other teams, Trevor Bauer comes back to his roots in Southern California where he’ll fit in with the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, David Price, and Dustin May. That’s not to mention the other starting rotation the Dodgers could go with in Julio Urias and Tony Gonsolin. Now with Bauer in the mix, this solidifies the Dodgers rotation with an easy 1 through 3 with Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, having options to go however he want with Bauer, Kershaw, and Buehler.

With Dodgers fans having to watch the San Diego Padres make a flurry of moves this off-season with acquiring basically a whole starting rotation in Blake Snell, Yu Darvish, and Joe Musgrove. The Dodgers treat their fans with a reward of their own in landing Bauer, who would easily be the ace of any other team, to an already stacked rotation. While Bauer has a career ERA of 3.90 with a WAR of 17.5 and a total of 1,190 innings pitched. He seems to be trending upward with his strong sample size performance in 2020 with a 1.73 ERA, a league leading ERA+ 276, and exactly 100 strikeouts. His best full season came in 2018 when he had an ERA of 2.21 in 175.1 innings of work with 221 strikeouts, it was also his first and only All-Star appearance.

Trevor Bauer has been marketing himself towards fans and teams alike throughout his career with his content team, Momentum. He’s provided inside looks at the 2020 season and hasn’t been afraid to say what’s on his mind, while also being a pitcher on top of it all. It looks like he’ll be taking it with him to Los Angeles where the city definitely knows how to market their athletes. Provided that he keeps doing this in 2021 with his new team, he’ll also bring some of his marketing skills to other Dodgers players that he can get to join him when he records himself.

While he does have opt-outs during his three-year contract, the Dodgers are still a win now team, even after completing their 2020 quest to a World Series victory. He’ll be making $40 million the first year, $45 million the second year, and then dropping to $17 million in 2023. That would make him the highest paid pitcher per AAV(Average Annual Value) for the first two years and give him a strong incentive to opt-out before the third year if he has continued success. For the Dodgers, this gives them some flexibility as they will have other questions regarding what they plan on doing with the likes of Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger, who will also look to get paid. Either way, the Dodgers starting rotation has just gotten a lot better, even though they were already great to begin with, and this team doesn’t look like they will slow down.

Jacob Cisneros is a writer for Dodgers-LowDown. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @_JacobCisneros. 

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