Prior to Tuesday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, Trevor Bauer was presented his 2020 National League Cy Young Award on the field at Dodger Stadium.
The right-hander of course earned the honor as a member of the Reds, pitching to a 5-4 record with an NL-best 1.73 ERA, 2.88 FIP and 0.80 WHIP in 73 innings (11 starts).
“It’s really special that they were able to be here,” Bauer said of his former teammates and coaches being in attendance when he received the award. “Obviously we went through the season last year together, bonded over a lot of different things and I won it with them.
“So I’m happy they were able to be in town, happy D.J. (Derek Johnson, Reds pitching coach) was able to be there, present it and we were able to share that moment together. We’ve been friends and known each other for a long time.
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“Fortunate enough to finally work with him last year and a little bit in 2019. It was a special moment to have him there, have Eric Jagers (Reds assistant pitching coach) there, who I’ve known for a long time and is a close friend. To have Sonny (Gray) and Luis (Castillo), members of the starting staff, I’m happy it worked out this way, for sure.”
Bauer struggled upon being traded to the Reds at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline in 2019, but took a big leap the following season, which he attributed to staying healthy and improving his command.
“I think I was injured in 2019. My fourth start of the year, I partially tore two ligaments in my ankle, and then I had a little back thing that flared up towards the end of the year. I was just kind of behind the 8-ball the entire time,” Bauer explained.
“So in 2020, I was healthy. That’s the biggest thing. And working with D.J. was huge; Caleb Cotham, too. People that I had been friends with for a long time, that I communicated really well with, had a history with, information was good, friendship was good, mentorship and leadership was great.
“And I commanded the ball a lot better. I chopped my walk rate down significantly, so when I did give up home runs or damaging hits, I wasn’t putting free baserunners out there. I made it easier on myself to have good starts.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of having a culture around you and having people around you that push you and also support you and all that. That was Derek, Caleb and everybody else on the Reds’ team and staff. I felt that.”
Bauer had always envisioned winning a Cy Young Award someday and motivated himself with a photo of Jim Palmer’s trophy. “I’ve had a picture of Cy Young Award on my phone background for 10 years. It was a picture of Jim Palmer’s Cy Young Award,” Bauer said.
“I just pulled it off the internet and put it there as a subconscious reminder that I need to work hard every day, study and get better, because that was the goal. To win a Cy Young of my own one day. Now I have one that says Trevor Bauer on it, not Jim Palmer. So it’s pretty cool.
“It’s 10 years of hard work, studying and time, a lot of really bad games, a lot of tough learning experiences. When I go take a picture of it here in a second, I’m going to change my phone background, it’s going to be a pretty cool moment.”
Bauer reveals plans for Cy Young Award
In addition to changing the background on his phone, Bauer revealed where he’s going to place his Cy Young Award. “I’m going to take a picture of it and change my phone background. That’s kind of been the thing for 10 years now, so that will be a cool moment,” Bauer said.
“It’s probably going to get its own spotlight next to my Golden Spikes Award. On the personal side of things, from an accomplishment standpoint, those are two things I set out in my baseball career to accomplish.
“For a kid who never played on the ‘A’ tournament team, who was never the best at any level he played at, to have two awards from college and the big leagues that says I was the best for a given period of time is pretty special.
“I’ll put those two next to each other and set up a spotlight on it so it always looks good.”
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