After what looked like a huge score for the Mets on the free-agent front, 2020 NL Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer has decided to sign with his hometown Dodgers instead of making his way to Queens in 2021.
Jon Heyman broke the news Friday afternoon while Bauer confirmed everything on YouTube.
As I mentioned, this is a change from what we were hearing last night when USA Today was reporting that a deal was all but done with the Mets.
That quickly changed as of this morning when Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported that a deal between the Mets and Bauer hasn’t been agreed upon but it was New York who had the best offer for the veteran right-hander.
At around 10 am ET, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted that the Mets were giving Bauer a Noon ET deadline to come to a decision but it was Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News who reported that there was no noon deadline in place between the Mets and Bauer.
In the end, though, it’s the Dodgers who are bolstering their rotation with a guy who’ll stay in the National League after coming off a season with the Reds where he went 5-4 with a 1.73 ERA and 0.795 WHIP.
According to Mike Feinsand, Bauer will receive $102 million over three seasons with the Dodgers. This includes opt outs in 2022 and 2023 plus a record $40 million dollar paycheck in 2021 and $45 million in 2022. That effectively means as of today Bauer will be the highest paid player in MLB history this season and once again next season based on AAV.
Hopefully, all this money doesn’t take away from Bauer helping kids with their homework on Twitter. I wonder too if there are any drone clauses in the deal?
Interestingly enough, according to Jeff Passan, the Mets still had the better deal on the table in terms of overall value but didn’t seem to match what LA was ultimately offering those first two seasons. Passan also adds that the chances Bauer stays with the Dodgers for that third season are “minimal”.
That makes sense too. If Bauer pitches well this season and next, why not go out and get one more massive deal when he’ll still only be 32 years old?
