“An embarrassment of riches” some might have said when the Dodgers landed reigning Cy Young starting pitcher Trevor Bauer this offseason. After a 13-2 start to begin the season, that still might have been the case, but as the season has continued there’s been one thing that’s apparent, and that is the Dodgers need Trevor Bauer. After entering Spring Training with nine viable options at starting pitching, the Dodgers are down to four. Dustin May is out for the season due to a scheduled Tommy John surgery next week. David Price is on the IL with a hamstring injury, and Tony Gonsolin has yet to appear in a game this season due to shoulder discomfort. After being close to flawless this season, Clayton Kershaw hit a speed bump by only managing to go one inning, a career low, and forced Dave Roberts to get 5 innings out of his bullpen. Dodgers had to play a second game that day due to Monday’s game being postponed with Bauer starting the night game. Though the Dodgers would also lose that game in extras, Bauer gave them a solid 4.1 innings by allowing just one solo home run.
Trevor Bauer has embraced handling the pressure for this team. Not only has he addressed the media when they’re piling questions on him about his performance or the team, but has also been up to the challenge of facing the Padres twice, while holding his own against any team determined to defeat the 2020 reigning champs. Early on this season, Bauer has been better than advertised. He leads MLB in innings pitched at 44.1 over 7 starts. Bauer is off to a 3-1 start with a 2.44 ERA and 58 strike outs. Opponents are only hitting .149 against him. If you look at every game that Bauer has appeared in, a case can be made that he should 6-0 at a minimum. Over his last two starts, Bauer has gotten one run of support. Dodgers lost both games. He was sensational against the Athletics and Padres, but both games were unfortunately blown by the bullpen. Since his Coors Field start, a game in which Bauer won, the most runs Bauer has allowed in a single start is two.
The Dodgers rotation currently consists of Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Julio UrÃas, and Trevor Bauer. As it stands now, the Dodgers depth has disappeared, and the team is fortunate they were able to land such a high caliber start because who knows where they’d be with out him right now. Andrew Friedman had the brilliant foresight of signing Trevor Bauer one of his priorities entering the offseason, and #27 is paying off.
Author: Twitter @Klein25
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