Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times
The free agent frenzy is slowly coming to an end with Spring Training right around the corner. On paper the Dodgers may not have needed Trevor Bauer, but are clearly showing they aren’t satisfied with just one World Series victory.
On February 5 Trevor Bauer announced he was signing with the Dodgers on his YouTube channel.
The news sparked all sorts of interesting conversations throughout the baseball community about just how good the Dodgers rotation would be, how close was it for the team’s competitors, and what it meant for Dodgers baseball.
Some of these questions will be answered potentially over the next 2-3 seasons with Bauer landing a three-year deal with opt-outs after each year.
Of course, anything can happen during the season that throws the Dodgers’ plans off course and into chaos. But for now we’ll just look at the deal as it is.
The Dodgers are coming off their first World Series championship since 1988; one which some are chooseing to look at as a false win due to the conditions of the shortened 60-game season that was plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the win is legitimate, it seems the team won’t settle with just that one World Series trophy. Why shouldn’t they?
It has the financial muscle and system of prospects to keep going and make this into a dynasty that lasts for as long as possible.
With Bauer, it proves the team is staying hungry for another win and will not be a victim of the dreaded World Series hangover that traditionally has hit teams after a championship win.
Recent teams to be victimized by this World Series hangover include the Kansas City Royals in 2015, Chicago Cubs in 2016, Boston Red Sox in 2018 and Washington Nationals in 2019.
All of these teams showed regression in some ways; some more than others. Either way, they lost their steam and are being forced to either start over or transition into some sort of a rebuild. These teams end up losing key players that proved to be too much to overcome in loss and financial complications that leads to decisions on the team’s future.
The Dodgers are different. They aren’t built like those teams, and while they have lost key pieces that helped them to their World Series victory, they went on to add arguably the best free agent starting pitcher in Bauer.
These names lost include Enrique Hernandez, Joc Pederson, Jake McGee and Alex Wood.
While hard to say goodbye to pieces that made up a championship solution, the team is keeping its commitment to the fans and community, showing that it isn’t finished building this core of players.
Time will tell if signing Bauer pays off.
For now, the Dodgers adding Bauer to an already stacked pitching rotation secures their hunger for another World Series victory. It also confirms the warning sent to the National League; one saying they aren’t done.
The message is specifically sent to the San Diego Padres, essentially saying that even after their off-season splurge, the Dodgers are still the team to get through.
Jacob Cisneros is a writer for Dodgers-LowDown. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @_JacobCisneros.Â