Brewers Video
In four seasons (not including 2024), Jake Bauers has never had a higher batting average than .226. He has shown modest power (.361 slugging percentage), mediocre defense (at best), and a below-average hit tool. He has a .210 batting average on more than 1,400 at bats so we are not talking about a small sample size. The man likes to strike out (a lot) - as his career 28.2% k rate will attest to (his strikeout rate in 2023 was 34.1%).
Does he do anything well? His 11% walk rate is pretty solid. He is mainly limited to 1B/DH, but he can play outfield corner if needed, just not very well. Anything else? He’s left-handed, which can be enticing to a lineup.
So, why the appeal? Perhaps it was his one-time status as a top-100 prospect for Tampa. But even that isn’t that special. Bauers never hit more than 14 homers in a minor-league season. And his lifetime minor league OPS of .784 is good but nothing great.
So again, why give the guy a major-league contract and a spot on the roster?
Perhaps it was Bauers' electric performance at Triple-A in 2023. In 78 at-bats, he mashed 11 home runs and hit .359. I don’t care how old you are, that’s impressive. It netted Bauers a call to the majors, and he went on to spend half the season as the Yankees' first baseman and corner outfielder.
Unfortunately for Bauers, the success didn’t carry over to the big leagues. He hit a dozen home runs in 242 at-bats, but that went with a .202 batting average and inflated strikeout numbers.
To put Bauers’ performance into perspective, according to FanGraphs, his 2023 fWAR as an outfielder ranked 126 out of 137 players with 250 or more plate appearances. As a first baseman, he was 42 out of 49 players.
In the end, the Brewers saw something in Bauers. Perhaps it was untapped potential - something four other teams have tried to unleash - and failed. And there’s the simple fact that he’s cheap. $1.35 million isn’t a lot of money in Major League Baseball. Giving guys like Bauers a shot seems to be a perennial thing for the front office. But the team rosters are littered with the likes of Luke Voit, Darren Ruf, Daniel Vogelbach, and Justin Smoak - sluggers on the cheap that the team was hoping to help emerge or recapture their glory years.
So if not Bauers - who? Tyler Black could have opened the season in the 1B/DH spot. Or how about someone like Brandon Belt, who went unsigned this off-season despite an .858 OPS in 2023? Of course, that means we probably would have had to hold off signing someone else (such as Gary Sánchez). And Belt’s health is a concern. But there seem to have been other options than committing to Bauers from the get-go.
Black's recent call-up might be a test run to see if he can replace Bauers. That shouldn’t be too hard. Bauers is hitting a paltry .197. His walk rate is the lowest of his career, and his K% rate is his highest ever—38.9 %. I think that pretty much says it all.
It’s time for the Jake Bauers era to be over.
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