Background and career
Trevor Andrew Bauer (born January 17, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Estrellas Orientales of the LIDOM. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Bauer has also played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars he will be playing winter baseball for the Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. Bauer and Gerrit Cole helped lead the UCLA Bruins to a 22-game win streak and a College World Series appearance in 2010. The following year, Bauer won both the Golden Spikes Award and the National Pitcher of the Year Award. The Diamondbacks selected him third overall in the 2011 MLB draft. Bauer made his major league debut the following June, becoming the first member of his draft class to reach the majors. Bauer clashed with his Diamondbacks teammates during the 2012 season. In December 2012, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians. He spent his first two seasons there retooling his pitching approach and repairing mechanics after a 2012 injury. By 2016, he had emerged as a regular force in the Indians' starting rotation. Shortly after his first MLB All-Star Game appearance in 2018, Bauer's career trajectory was interrupted by a stress fracture that kept him out of the rotation until the end of the season. Bauer struggled during the 2019 season and was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in July. During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Bauer became the first Reds player to win the Cy Young Award. Bauer became a free agent after the 2020 season and signed a three-year contract with the Dodgers in February 2021. He led the National League in both strikeouts and innings pitched through July 2, but spent the rest of the season on administrative leave as MLB investigated sexual assault allegations against him. On April 29, 2022, MLB suspended Bauer for 324 games for violating its Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. On appeal, the suspension was reduced to 194 games. Bauer has not been criminally charged in connection with the sexual assault allegations. The Dodgers released him on January 12, 2023. Bauer then signed with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). After one season in Japan, Bauer signed with Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League (LMB); there, he won the Pitcher of the Year award and helped the team win the 2024 championship. Bauer played for the BayStars again in 2025 and signed with the Long Island Ducks in 2026. On June 23, 2026 Trevor announced that he would be leaving the Ducks and reuniting with the Mexico City Diablos Rojos for the remainder of the 2026 season.
Bauer was born on January 17, 1991, in North Hollywood, California. From a young age, Bauer was fascinated by baseball pitchers like Atlanta Braves players Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz. His parents Warren and Kathy paid for pitching lessons from a private coach, and in his free time, he would practice pitching against the fence of a local tennis court. Bauer had few friends in school and experienced bullying for his obsession with baseball. He continued to practice his technique at William S. Hart High School in Santa Clarita, and he spent the summers at a baseball camp in Texas. As a junior in 2008, Bauer posted a 12–0 win–loss record with a 0.79 earned run average (ERA), and his fastball reached speeds of up to 92 mph (148 km/h). His final high school game was a playoff shutout against Canyon Springs High School that Hart took 4–0. Bauer chose to graduate after his junior season, in part because he meshed poorly with many of his teammates, including future Major League Baseball (MLB) player Mike Montgomery.
After graduating from high school, Bauer attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to study mechanical engineering. There, he joined the UCLA Bruins baseball team in the same class as Gerrit Cole. The two formed a rivalry that began, according to Bauer, when Cole told him that he had "no future in baseball". At the end of their freshman season in 2009, Bauer led the team with nine wins, a 2.99 ERA. and 105+1⁄3 innings pitched, also getting named the Pac-10 Conference Baseball Newcomer of the Year. Cole and Bauer combined in 2010 to push the Bruins to a 10–0 start, the best record to begin the season since the school started keeping track in the 1950s. Bauer was 2–0 with a 2.45 ERA in those first 10 games, and he and Cole combined for 49 strikeouts in 32+2⁄3 innings. The Bruins ultimately built a 22-game winning streak before April 3, when the Stanford Cardinal were able to capitalize on a fifth-inning error by the UCLA shortstop, as Stanford defeated UCLA 8–4, giving Bauer his first loss in over a year. UCLA continued to dominate in the postseason, with Bauer taking the win in a 10–3 rout of Texas Christian to lead UCLA to its first ever College World Series Championship Series. South Carolina swept UCLA in the best-of-three series to win the championship. Bauer set a number of UCLA records as a junior in 2011. On March 26, he struck out his 329th college batter in a complete game shutout of the University of Southern California, passing Alex Sanchez' strikeout record from 1987. On April 16, he recorded his 28th career win in a 4–0 victory over the Arizona Wildcats, gaining a 28–7 record and passing Sanchez as the UCLA all-time wins leader. For the season, he led the school with 460 strikeouts, 34 wins, and 373+1⁄3 innings pitched. For his efforts that year, Bauer won the National Pitcher of the Year Award, awarded by the College Baseball Foundation. He was also the first UCLA player to receive the Golden Spikes Award, given annually to the top amateur baseball player in the United States.
While Cole was projected to go first overall in the 2011 MLB draft, Bauer's performance during the 2011 NCAA season saw his stock rise among MLB scouts. As predicted, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Cole first overall, while Bauer went to the Arizona Diamondbacks two selections later. It was the first time that two college teammates were selected first and third overall in the same MLB draft since 1978 (when the Atlanta Braves took Bob Horner first in the draft and the New York Mets selected Hubie Brooks third overall). Bauer signed with the Diamondbacks on July 25 and was subsequently assigned to the Class A-Advanced Visalia Rawhide of the California League. He made only three appearances with Visalia, pitching 14 innings and allowing three runs before being promoted to the Double-A Mobile BayBears that August. Bauer debuted with Mobile on August 16, striking out eight batters and allowing five hits in five innings of work. Bauer picked up his first professional baseball win on August 20, pitching five innings in Mobile's 13–6 victory over the Jacksonville Suns. In four starts with the BayBears that year, Bauer went 1–1 with a 7.56 ERA, striking out 26 batters in 16+2⁄3 innings of work. Bauer entered the 2012 season as the Diamondbacks' top-rated prospect, and the ninth overall prospect in MLB. He received an invitation to the Diamondbacks' spring training and went 1–0 with a 3.60 ERA in 10 Cactus League innings. Ultimately, however, Bauer failed to displace Josh Collmenter in Arizona's starting rotation, and was assigned back to Double-A Mobile shortly before Opening Day. He made eight more starts in Double-A, going 7–1 with a 1.68 ERA and striking out 60 batters in 48+1⁄3 innings, before receiving a promotion to the Triple-A Reno Aces on May 17. At the time of his promotion, he led the Southern League in wins, strikeouts, and ERA. Bauer was selected to pitch in the 2012 All-Star Futures Game, but was unavailable as the Diamondbacks had called him up to the major leagues. (His replacement was Tyler Skaggs). At the time, he had a combined 11–1 record and 2.23 ERA between Reno and Mobile.
On June 27, 2012, the Diamondbacks called Bauer up from Reno in order to replace an injured Joe Saunders. He was scheduled to start the next day, becoming the first member of the 2011 draft class to make his MLB debut. Although the Diamondbacks defeated the Atlanta Braves 3–2, Bauer earned a no-decision in his major league debut, pitching four innings before suffering a groin strain that required him to leave the mound. He picked up his first win on July 8, holding the Los Angeles Dodgers to six scoreless innings as the Diamondbacks ultimately won 7–1. After four major league starts, during which Bauer went 1–2 with a 6.06 ERA, he was sent back down to Reno, where he was shut down for a period of two weeks in order to preserve his health during his first full season of professional baseball. He finished the season there, helping the Aces reach their first Pacific Coast League and Triple-A baseball championships. In the championship game against the Pawtucket Red Sox of the International League, Bauer took another no decision as he allowed two runs in 4+2⁄3 innings. In 14 total starts for Reno, Bauer posted a 5–1 record and a 2.85 ERA, striking out 97 batters in 82 innings.
On December 11, 2012, Bauer was part of a three-team, nine-player trade between Arizona, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Cleveland Indians. Bauer, fellow Diamondbacks pitchers Matt Albers and Bryan Shaw, and Reds outfielder Drew Stubbs went to Cleveland, who in turn sent Shin-Soo Choo and Jason Donald to Cincinnati, and Tony Sipp and Lars Anderson to Arizona. The Reds also traded prospect Didi Gregorius to the Diamondbacks. After the trade, it was revealed that Bauer had been unpopular with most members of the club. His Diamondbacks batterymate Miguel Montero said that he had struggled to catch for Bauer, as he ignored his pitch calling and would "tell [Montero] how to do [his] job". Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall told reporters that Bauer "had a really tough year" with Arizona, and that the pitcher had apologized for his attitude to several veteran players. That February, Bauer released a rap song on SoundCloud called "You Don't Know Me", a purported diss track against his former teammate.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
