Trevor Bauer Signs With Long Island Ducks, Eyes MLB Return After Suspension

Trevor Bauer pitched his last Major League Baseball game in June 2021. Nearly five years later, the 35-year-old right-hander is scheduled to take the mound at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip on April 21, mic'd up, as the Long Island Ducks' opening night starter in the Atlantic League. The distance between those two moments, measured not just in years but in suspensions, overseas stints, and unanswered calls from big-league teams, is the story.

The Ducks announced the signing on April 2, entering Bauer into his 15th professional season. The Atlantic League is MLB's first Professional Partner League and, over its 27-year history, has sent over 1,450 players to MLB organizations. For Bauer, it represents the highest level of American baseball currently available to him. No MLB team has signed him since his reinstatement.

The reason is not velocity or statistics. When Bauer last wore a Dodgers uniform, he was the reigning 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner, having claimed the honor during the COVID-shortened season with the Cincinnati Reds. In July 2021, he was placed on administrative leave after a San Diego woman obtained a temporary restraining order; three women ultimately made accusations against him. Bauer has been trying to revive his big-league career after serving a 194-game suspension for violating MLB's domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. That figure, reduced from an original 324-game ban by independent arbitrator Martin F. Scheinman, remains the longest handed down under the MLB-MLBPA Joint Domestic Violence Policy, which was enacted in 2015. He was never charged with a crime in the matter, and civil claims against him were settled. The Dodgers released him in January 2023, and no major league club came calling after that.

Bauer was 4-10 with a 4.41 ERA with Yokohama last year. That followed stronger returns: a 2.76 ERA with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in 2023 and a 2.48 ERA with the Diablos Rojos del México in Mexico City in 2024, the season that earned him the Mexican Baseball League's pitcher of the year award. The arc of those three overseas campaigns captures the uncertainty now surrounding any serious MLB conversation.

"I'm looking forward to competing in front of U.S. fans again this season," Bauer said in a statement. "The Ducks have had some incredible players come through their organization, and I'm excited to be part of that tradition."

The Ducks have packaged the signing with a content arrangement built to monetize the attention. Bauer will be "Mic'd Up" for all games and practices, helping create content for both his and the team's outlets. Michael Pfaff, the Ducks' president and chief baseball officer, said the club is "happy to offer him this opportunity to showcase his talents to MLB clubs while giving fans unprecedented access to Ducks baseball." The Long Island Ducks have led all MLB Partner Leagues in total attendance for five consecutive seasons and have sold out a record 721 games all-time. A former Cy Young winner in the rotation does not hurt that streak.

Whether any of it translates to a major league offer is the harder math. A dominant stretch of Atlantic League starts could put Bauer's name in front of front offices for the first time since Los Angeles cut him loose. But the reputational calculus remains unchanged: any team willing to sign him accepts the scrutiny that arrives with the transaction. That is the threshold the sport has not yet seen cleared for a player in Bauer's specific position.