I'll be the first to admit it, but midway through this 2017 season I had written Trevor Bauer off. I thought he was done for, stick a fork in him, get him out of here. I honestly didn't expect Terry Francona and the club to put up with Bauer for much longer. By the end of May his ERA was 6.00 and the Californian native was in free fall.
But Bauer has turned his season around. When he left the mound yesterday after the end of the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium, the divisive right-hander was on track for his fourteenth victory of the year, which the bullpen trio of Tyler Olson, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen helped secure. Bauer stifled the Bronx Bombers' powerful lineup, limiting them to just 4 hits and 1 run, over 6 impressive innings. Since the All Star break the 26 year-old has really found another gear; In the ten games since the midsummer classic he's compiled a 3.08 ERA and hasn't lost a game since July 16th.
As we enter the season's final month Bauer currently sits with a 14-8 record and a 4.46 ERA in 145.1 innings of work. He has 161 strikeouts over that span, giving him a 9.97 K/9 rate, the highest mark of his career so far. His HR/9 rate of 1.24 is slightly above his career average but this season has seen an enormous spike in home runs across the league, so the majority of pitchers will have seen an increase in this category also.
At first glance his overall ERA doesn't look that impressive but consider the journey he's been on. By the middle of May his ERA was hovering dangerously close to the mid seven mark so he's performed a minor miracle to continue bringing that number down. Bauer hasn't been perfect by any means, and he's experienced the odd blip here and there, but to his credit he didn't give up, and the Indians should receive credit for not giving up on him too. Bauer's FIP and xFIP numbers are perhaps a better indicator of the significant improvement he has made; His FIP currently stands at 3.90 and his xFIP even lower at 3.73, both career lows as they stand.
Ultimately, all of this hard work will count for nothing unless he can erase his postseason demons of 2016. Obviously the Indians need to get there first but given their recent run of form, it's looking like a good bet. Bauer's reputation and public persona definitely divides opinion. All of that drama with his drone last year made things worse and his first half performance added fuel to the fire, making him even less popular with the Tribe faithful. However his remarkable turnaround has started to win people over, me included (oh, the fickleness of professional sports.) If he can carry this form into October he'll go a long way to securing a new deal, which is massive when you consider that just a short time ago he could have been off the team. Bauer has turned things around to comfortably become one of the Indians' top performers in the second half of 2017, and has been one of the major contributors to their turnaround in performance. Now let's hope he can keep this up for a little while longer.
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