Blue Jays: Why they should go after Trevor Bauer in free agency

The Toronto Blue Jays could use another arm in the starting rotation. Trevor Bauer is looking for a new team. Let’s make the case for the two to unite.

The Toronto Blue Jays are slowly but surely turning their rebuild around. We saw management go after all-star Hyun Jin Ryu last winter while trading for former LA Dodgers ace Ross Stripling this season. But there’s another pitcher on the market who could speed up the rebuild process.

Trevor Bauer is on the market and literally searching for a new team. He began his tour on Twitter tweeting the LA Angels:

But then he received a tweet from Blue Jays outfielder Randal Grichuk. Jays Journal Clayton Richer summarized everything which went down between the two on Twitter.

However, let’s take a look at why the Blue Jays should pursue the all-star ace. And there are a lot of upsides to the controversial Bauer.

The Reds pitcher started in 11 games this season, going 5-4 with an ERA of 1.73. He only gave up 14 earned runs, while allowing just nine home runs. In this shortened season, Bauer struck out 100 batters, the most since 2018.

The question for Blue Jays management is, what would the rewards be in signing Bauer? He has a huge personality and one which teams might not want to tackle. If we throw it back to 2016, Bauer was trolling Blue Jays fans before any real rivalry started.

Here’s a management message:

The past is in the past… sign the man. Pay him whatever he wants (within reason.) Find a way to make him love Toronto. Use Drake or former Toronto Raptor Kawhi Leonard, to convince him “the six” is one of the best markets in baseball.

Bauer did experience how passionate Blue Jays fans are. And it’s no secret this team is getting better by the season. So there are lots of positives for Bauer to sign on the dotted line.

If the Blue Jays somehow manage to sign him, the starting rotation could look like this:

1. Trevor Bauer (1A)
2. Hyun Jin Ryu (1B)

And a few more to fill it out, but honestly just having these two as your top pitchers would be a dream. It’s been a few years since the Blue Jays had a strong bullpen. You’d have to think back to the Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman era.

It’s tough to sign top tier free agents to Toronto for many reasons. But the Blue Jays front office needs to push for the superstar if they want to continue building on their success from 2020.