Los Angeles Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten said the organization's decision to release right-handed pitcher Trevor Bauer was “unanimous,” ESPN staff writer Alden Gonzalez wrote in a Thursday article.
Trevor Bauer was released in January after the Dodgers designated him for assignment. The team is still obligated to pay him his 2023 salary of $22.5 million “minus any salary he draws from another MLB team,” according to Orange County Register Dodgers beat writer Bill Plunkett. Any organization can sign Bauer to a league-minimum of $720,000.
Bauer wrote as part of his statement that the executives he spoke with in Arizona the day before “wanted me to return and pitch for the team this year” after he was designated for assignment by the Dodgers, according to ESPN. He was released six days later.
“I'm not going to get into contradicting or agreeing with anything about what was supposed to be a private conversation,” Kasten said when asked about Bauer's claim. “I'll just say within a very short time we came back and made our decision.
“I think that speaks for itself.”
Trevor Bauer signed a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers in February 2021. He would earn $40 million in 2021 and $45 million in 2022 with opt-out options after each of the first two years. The agreement came less than 24 hours after USA TODAY baseball reporter Bob Nightengale tweeted the New York Mets made a deal with the 2020 National League Cy Young award winner.
Stan Kasten said he did not want to go into any specifics about the meeting.
“I don't want to talk about what went on, what was discussed, what wasn't discussed or who was there,” Kasten said. “But we did hear from him. I thought it was the right thing to do.
“I'm happy that we did it, along with everything else that we did, to reach the best decision that we could. I stand by our decision. I'm very comfortable with it.”
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