“It just doesn’t feel like anything that I do is going to be sufficient, no matter how well I pitch or what I say or don’t say.”
That was the blunt assessment by former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer of where his baseball career stands right now when he joined “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” on Tuesday.
As Fox News Digital’s Scott Thompson reported, Bauer threw a seven-inning no-hitter for the Atlantic League Long Island Ducks in a 13-0 win over the Lancaster Stormers on Sunday at Penn Medicine Park. It was just Bauer’s second start in the United States since 2021, and he walked one and struck out seven in a scheduled seven-inning game (as part of a doubleheader) against the Stormers.
For Bauer, the no-hitter was not proof to himself. It was proof to everyone else.
And yet, Bauer told Dakich that even continued success on the mound has not changed what happens when teams get deep into conversations about signing him.
“I can’t tell you how many times, how many different teams we’ve talked to, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s done. We’ve talked with the front office, they’re on board. The players are on board, we’ve talked to PR, they’re on board, we’ve talked to ownership, they are on board. We just got to get final approval. Keep your phone on, we’re going to call you,’” Bauer said.
“And then nothing happens for two or three days and we get a call back saying, ‘Hey, we can’t really talk about this, but sorry, it’s not going to work out.’”
Bauer, the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner, has not pitched in MLB since 2021 after a suspension under MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy was reduced to 194 games by an independent arbitrator; the Dodgers released him in January 2023.
Bauer stopped short of directly saying Commissioner Rob Manfred is personally blocking him, but he also did not hide what he thinks is happening.
“I don’t know exactly what goes on behind the scenes. I have my suspicions, of course,” Bauer said. “People can think what they want to think about it. I think what I think, but the ultimate reality is, I still don’t have a job.”
The former Cy Young Award winner told Dakich he has tried just about everything to remove any excuse a club could make for not bringing him in.
“I’ve offered to play for free. I’ve offered to go to the minor leagues. I’ve offered to literally donate my entire salary back to the team’s foundation, to play literally for zero dollars,” Bauer said. “I’ve offered to give up control of my social media if that’s what’s the problem. I’ve offered to not make content. I’ve offered to do really whatever.”
That’s why Bauer’s most important quote from the interview landed the way it did. He doesn’t sound like someone waiting on the right opportunity. He sounds like someone who believes the decision has already been made.
“It just doesn’t feel like anything that I do is going to be sufficient,” Bauer said again, “no matter how well I pitch or what I say or don’t say or whatever.”
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Still, Bauer told Dakich he has not lost his love for the game itself.
“I do love playing baseball,” he said. “The game itself, actually pitching and being in the game, it’s a lot of fun.”
What has changed, according to Bauer, is his tolerance for everything around it.
“I’m tired of a lot of the extra BS that goes along with it,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I love playing down in Mexico so much. That’s one of the reasons I’ve loved playing over in Japan so much, because it was just go play the game and not have to deal with it.”
Bauer said playing in America has become different because it constantly comes with reminders of the broader fight surrounding his career.
“Every time I play in America, I love seeing the fans and I love playing here,” Bauer said. “But I’m just always reminded, there’s major-league games on TV or there’s articles written about me or whatever, and I’m reminded of the BS.”
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That media criticism remained a major part of Bauer’s conversation with Dakich, especially when discussing how his story has been covered.
“There’s very few articles that ever get everything right,” Bauer said. “I would say the majority of the time, a lot of it is omission too. They know something to be true and they just omit certain facts.”
He argued that the result is often a version of the story designed to push readers in one direction before they ever get the full context.
“I think a lot of the articles are intended to be slanted a certain way,” Bauer said. “They’re purposely inflammatory from a headline perspective to try to get clicks and then they don’t really reflect the situation accurately on purpose.”
Dakich also asked Bauer why his outspokenness has so often been treated as a problem instead of an asset, and Bauer gave an answer that was both self-aware and revealing.
“I think it was embraced by a lot of people,” Bauer said. “I think I have a very passionate fan base. I think a lot of the players, the younger players, the younger generation, I think a lot of the fans really appreciate it.”
At the same time, Bauer acknowledged that some of his public persona was intentional.
“I’m just polarizing in some ways,” he said. “A lot of it’s been intentional to try to draw attention to the sport of baseball and to try to market it and get more eyeballs on it.”
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He even admitted he has sometimes leaned into a role that invited criticism.
“I think for something to be interesting, you really need to have like a villain in a lot of ways,” Bauer said. “And I have no problem playing that role.”
Bauer also addressed his long-running issues with MLB and Manfred, pointing to his public criticism of pitchers using sticky substances and of league decisions over the years.
“So I was very vocal about that,” Bauer said. “I was very critical of Rob and his decisions on the COVID season and some of the collective bargaining stuff. So all of that kind of culminated in having a bad relationship with the league.”
Still, Bauer said the relationship has not been completely nonexistent. He told Dakich he has spoken directly with Manfred more than once and has tried to own his part in how things escalated.
“I’ve talked to Manfred face to face multiple times,” Bauer said. “I’ve apologized for a lot of the stuff that I did.”
That doesn’t mean he would call his past decisions regrets.
“I wouldn’t say regrets, because I just don’t like the word regrets,” Bauer said. “I’ve learned a lot of lessons. There’s certainly a lot of things that I would do differently.”
For now, though, Bauer’s message was pretty simple. He still believes he can pitch. He still believes he has shown that. And after a no-hitter on Sunday, he clearly believes the baseball case for another chance is as strong as ever.
The problem, in Bauer’s view, is that baseball is far from the only thing under judgment.
