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The last time we checked in on disgraced former MLB Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer, things weren’t going so well in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. Well, now it appears that things have gone from bad to worse.
Bauer, who claimed to have been blackballed from the MLB over sexual assault allegations, gave up seven runs in one inning of work against the NPB’s worst offense. But hey, bad starts happen sometimes. Maybe it was just a one-time deal?
Trevor Bauer gives up 13 baserunners, and the Yomiuri Giants make him pay.
His NPB-worst ERA climbs to 4.13 pic.twitter.com/mQ76lo91PW
— Gaijin Baseball/外国人野球 (@GaijinBaseball) June 28, 2025
Trevor Bauer Maintains He Has ‘Elite’ Stuff Despite Evidence Suggesting Otherwise
Or not. Bauer allowed five runs on seven hits and six walks in just 5.1 innings over the weekend against the Yomiuri Giants. The second-consecutive terrible outing brought his ERA to 4.13, which is the worst in the NPB, which is currently in the middle of a dead-ball era.
Afterward, Bauer gave Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times a hilarious explanation for why he’s struggling.
“I have elite swing-and-miss stuff, but every time I throw it in the zone, it gets hit. I try to throw more on the edges, I don’t get swings out of the zone, and I walk a lot of people. So then, as the game goes along, I try to throw more pitches in the zone, so I don’t walk people, and then everything is a hit.”
“I don’t know what else to … I’m completely lost, to be honest.”
The struggles on the mound also seem to be weighing on Bauer mentally.
“It’s a mixture of frustration and depression,” Bauer said. “Everything I’ve tried has been unsuccessful. So I don’t know. I have five elite pitches. When I throw them in the zone, they hit like .400 on balls in play. I lead the Central League in strikeouts, but I’ve given up the most hits and the most runs. I don’t know how to rationalize those two things.”
I’m not sure Bauer knows what the word “elite” means. But if he had “elite” swing-and-miss stuff, I’d guess that hitters would be batting .400 on balls in play. But hey, what do I know? After all, maybe all 20 of the hitters on the planet that Bauer says can hit him happen to play in the NPB?