In Japan, Trevor Bauer greeted by welcoming crowd as he wins first start
One month after Trevor Bauer would have been eligible to re-join the Los Angeles Dodgers - or any other major league team - the disgraced pitcher found a willing audience for his pitching talents.
Banned from Major League Baseball for 194 games after violating their domestic violence policy, released by the Dodgers even as they owed him $22 million and ignored by 29 teams that could have signed him, Bauer won his first start Wednesday for the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japan Eastern League.
Bauer, 32, turned in a typically efficient start, striking out nine over seven innings against the Hiroshima Carp, yielding a home run to former Cincinnati Reds teammate Matt Davidson. He was cheered throughout by a crowd of 33,202 in a city that, according to The Associated Press, heralded Bauer's arrival with billboards that included a seven-story image of the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner adorning a department store.
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Bauer was never so revered stateside, and his actions made him anathema to Dodgers fans before he'd even thrown a pitch.
Significant segments of their fan base expressed disdain when the club, coming off a World Series title, signed him to a three-year, $102 million contract in February 2021. Bauer's aggressive and at times misogynistic online persona, including the harassing of a college student, preceded his arrival in Los Angeles.
The trepidation gave way to Bauer's placement on administrative leave in July 2021 when a woman told Pasadena police that two consensual sexual encounters turned violent. Bauer disputed the claims, calling the encounters "wholly consensual," and after a seven-month investigation, the county district attorney's office determined there was insufficient evidence to press charges.
Yet Bauer's MLB future would be clouded when reports emerged of two Ohio women levying similar claims against the pitcher over the years, resulting in MLB assessing a record 324-game suspension - or two full seasons. Bauer became the first player under MLB's domestic violence policy to appeal his suspension rather than reach mutual agreement.
An arbitrator upheld 194 games of the suspension in December 2022, reinstating him immediately but docking 50 more games of pay. Three weeks later, the Dodgers released him.
With no stateside suitors, Bauer looked to Japan and struck an agreement with Yokohama for a reported $4 million. After a handful of minor league outings, Bauer debuted to a crowd that pulsated with the thrumming energy expected of games in Japan.
"I played in a World Series in 2016, and the Cleveland stadium was very loud," Bauer said, per the Associated Press. "But the sustained energy here is just so much different."
So, too, is the apparent willingness to overlook transgressions that stopped MLB teams from signing him for the league minimum, since he's still getting paid by the Dodgers. The reaction of one Yokohama fan, per the AP, strikes a tone similar to some Browns fans in Bauer's former home in Cleveland, where quarterback Deshaun Watson - who settled 23 of 26 sexual harassment lawsuits against him - was signed to a $230 million contract after a trade from Houston.
"I know he had some issues in the past, but he was not convicted," Shohei Horikawa told the AP, wearing a Bauer No. 96 jersey. "I want him to reset himself in Japan without any prejudice and to do his best."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trevor Bauer wins first Japanese debut, greeted by welcoming crowd
