Trevor Bauer’s agent drops 3-word reaction in player’s 2025 NPB season debut for the BayStars

Modified Mar 29, 2025 18:31 GMT

MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres - Source: Imagn — Trevor Bauer delivering a pitch (Imagn)

Trevor Bauer's agent, Rachel Luba, expressed her excitement as the former made his 2025 NPB debut for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. The agent celebrated the pitcher's return to Japan on X. Bauer previously played for the BayStars during the 2023 season.

Bauer and Luba were busy exploring Europe during the offseason. The escapade across the pond happened after the LMB (Mexican League) season which the former Cy Young winner participated in. Bauer played for the Diablos Rojos del Mexico and helped them win the league title with a Mexican League Pitcher of the Year award to boot.

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"Happy Bauer Day!" Rachel Luba tweeted on Friday.

In a six-inning appearance against the Chunichi Dragons, Bauer surrendered one run on six base hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. However, the sole run that the pitcher issued to Takuya Kinoshita was the deciding factor between the BayStars and the Dragons as the latter came away with the 1–0 victory.

Although Bauer posted a respectable line, his opposite number Takahiro Matsuba had a spectacular outing. Matsuba gave up just two hits and fanned nine BayStars in his seven-inning appearance.

Yokohama now has a 1-1 record as it attempts to defend its Japan Series title this season. In the three-game opening series, it will face the Chunichi Dragons again for a rubber match. The game is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. local time.

It should be noted that during Bauer's time away from the BayStars in 2024, the team embarked on a Cinderella run during the NPB postseason. After finishing third in the Central League with a 71-69-3 record and qualifying for the playoffs with the lowest win percentage, the team surprised many when it swept the second-seed Hanshin Tigers in the first stage of the playoffs.

It then upset the one-seed and perennial playoff powerhouse Yomiuri Giants in seven games during the final stage of the league playoffs. The series win gave the BayStars a ticket to the Japan Series wherein the Pacific League champion Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks were waiting for them.

During the final series, the BayStars arguably pulled off the biggest upset in Japan Series history by defeating the SoftBank Hawks, who finished the regular season with the best record in all of NPB at 91-49-3.

Trevor Bauer gets peppered during spring training game

Before making his regular season debut for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Trevor Bauer had an outing to forget against the Saitama Seibu Lions at the latter's home turf, the Belluna Dome.

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In his five innings of work against Seibu, he gave up four earned runs on nine base hits with one walk and five strikeouts. Bauer issued all the runs the Lions scored in a 4–2 defeat.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Abhimanyu Gupta