It’s officially official – Trevor Bauer is a Dodger.

On Thursday afternoon, in front of 55,000 empty seats at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman presented the 30-year-old North Hollywood, CA native, who grew up a diehard Dodger fan in nearby Santa Clarita, with his pristine Dodgers home white jersey – number 27 – in front of the media and fans via Zoom.

“It’s a surreal moment for me and something that I’m very proud of,” Bauer said “It’s a very surreal thing, sitting on the field and looking out at the stands, as opposed to sitting in the stands looking out at the field.”

And then the questions started from the cadry of Dodgers beat writers; and they spared the hard-throwing right-hander and 2020 National League Cy Young award winner no mercy.

The easy – and expected – question came first: Why Los Angeles (Dodgers) instead of New York (Mets)?

“Honestly, the locale didn’t have much of a factor,” Bauer answered. “It was all about the organization, the talent level that’s here, the organizational structure, the systems that are in place, the people that are here. I’ve talked to a lot of players that have played here, a lot of players that have played for Dave [Roberts], a lot of players that have played for Andrew [Friedman], and I haven’t heard a single negative thing. Everything that I was looking for in a home is here.

“It wasn’t about the money for me,” Bauer added. “It’s about being part of something that’s bigger than myself, being part of an organization that can win. I want to win a World Series. I’ve come in second both in college and in the big leagues. I’m tired of it. I want to come in first.”

Friedman was also asked an easy – and expected – question: What does he think about acquiring the best free-agent pitcher on the market?

“Coming into the offseason, Trevor was very front and center for us, so we had a few different phone calls and stayed in contact,” answered Friedman. “There were days where I felt optimistic and certain days that I didn’t. Our ownership group, Mark Walter, put some wind behind the sail and said, ‘Let’s go get this done,’ and fortunately, it wasn’t too late, and we were able to get to this outcome. Couldn’t be more excited about it.”

And then the hard – and also expected – questions came about Bauer’s well documented (literally) controversial posts on Twitter (@BauerOutage):

“Everyone makes mistakes in the past. I try to learn from them, I try to learn from them as quickly as I possibly can” Bauer answered. “I try to understand other people’s viewpoints on things and be better in the future. I think if you look at my history as a baseball player, my history on social media, and my history as a person, for those who know me well, they know that I apply that process to everything that I do. I’m committed to doing that moving forward, as well.

“I’m doing my best to be better, as I do in all walks of my life. I don’t think it makes sense to dive into specific issues in this forum, but I am committed to being better on social media, being better on the field, being better in the clubhouse, being better in life in general. I’m here to win and I’m here to make a positive impact in people’s lives,” he added.

Without missing a beat, Friedman was asked if the concerns of fans opposed to signing Bauer because of his social media baggage carried any ‘value’ with him.

“Oh, we very much value them, that part is easy,” Friedman said. “Hopefully, over the past six-plus years, some trust and credibility has been built up in terms of the research that we do on players and the vetting process that we go through in terms of talking to teammates of players that we’re looking at, talking to clubhouse guys, talking to trainers.

“You know, we get as much information as we can on players, and, you know, there’s some stuff that’s more public with Trevor that definitely was something we wanted to dig into,” Friedman added. “We had multiple conversations with Trevor; Stan (Kasten) and I talked to Trevor. And the most important thing is every teammate we talked to, all the feedback we got from every organization he was with, was not only incredibly positive in terms of the type of teammate he is, but also in terms of the impact he makes on each organization.”

Play Ball!

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