Rob Manfred's subtle swipe at Mike Trout motivated Trevor Bauer to take marketing into his own hands

Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer has not played in the major leagues since he was banned by the MLB over allegations of sexual assault by a woman in 2021. The All-Star starting pitcher has been playing in Japan and Mexico over the past couple of years, while also growing his video production company, which produces vlogs and other social media content.

During a recent interview, Trevor Bauer shared that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was motivated to create baseball-based video content following a subtle dig at Mike Trout during the 2018 All-Star Game. Bauer interpreted Manfred's comments on marketing baseball superstars as suggesting that the players themselves were reluctant to promote their own brands.

Trevor Bauer appeared as a guest for The Wealthy Way podcast hosted by Ryan Pineda earlier this week. He said he wanted to prove Rob Manfred wrong, which led to him founding his video production company, Momentum Films (Timestamp: 28:50 - 34:05).

"[In] 2018, I'm at the All-Star Game, and they ask Rob Manfred what baseball can do to market their stars better, specifically talking about Mike Trout," he recalled. "He says baseball can't market the players if they don't want to be marketed. And at the time, I took it as he's blaming the players for not having independent knowledge of marketing, not being entertainers from the classical sense of creating content."

"I looked at that, and I was like, there's a problem here. There's an inefficiency in this market place. Baseball players need a company that can make creating content easy for them so they can market themselves better," Bauer added. "I started Momentum with the idea of working with players, to make content of them, to then help market them. They can get deals. The sport would be better. The fans would be more entertained, and it'd be good for everybody involved."

Former San Francisco Giants minor league prospect Eric Sim is one of the former players involved with Trevor Bauer and has become a social media celebrity through their content.

It's never been done before: Trevor Bauer on vlogging his Cy Young winning season

Trevor Bauer was officially released by the Dodgers in 2023 (Image Source: Imagn)

Trevor Bauer won the 2020 National League Cy Young Award while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he vlogged his entire season, which was shortened to 60 games. Even the playoffs were played in empty, neutral stadiums with no fans.

"I was like, okay, COVID is here now. It is the 2020 season. What are we going to do for content? It's so hard to work with players, and now no one can even come to the stadiums," he said. "So, I'll just vlog."

"So, I vlogged the entire season. Saw crazy success with it these two months of the season. And I was like, 'Oh, that hit!' I've got a literal day-by-day vlog of the season I won the Cy Young. Where else can you get that? It's never been done before."

Bauer also created vlogs for his company while playing in Japan and Mexico over the past two years.