On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer signed a one-year deal with the Yokohama BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The deal is reportedly worth $6 million, making it the largest contract ever given to an American player in the NPB.
The 29-year-old right-hander is coming off a stellar 2020 season in which he won the National League Cy Young Award after posting a 1.73 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 73 innings pitched. He was also a finalist for the American League Cy Young Award in 2018 and 2019.
Bauer will be wearing the No. 96 jersey for the BayStars, which is a nod to his career-high 96 strikeouts in a single game against the San Diego Padres in May of 2018. He also wore No. 96 during his college days at UCLA.
The BayStars are hoping that Bauer’s presence will help them make a run at the NPB championship for the first time since 1998. They finished fourth in the Central League standings last season and have not made the playoffs since 2015.
Bauer is the latest in a string of high-profile MLB players to make the move to Japan, joining fellow Cy Young Award winners Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish. He is also the first American player to sign with the BayStars since former All-Star pitcher Scott Kazmir inked a deal with the team in 2014.
Bauer’s signing is a major coup for the BayStars and could help them become a legitimate contender in the NPB. It will be interesting to see how he fares in his new home and if he can help Yokohama make a run at the championship.
