Cleveland Indians: Will Trevor Bauer Ever Develop Into an Ace?

Trevor Bauer had a rough season for the Cleveland Indians in 2015, but then again, when hasn’t he had a rough season? The 24-year-old is one of the most talented pitchers in the game in terms of ability, but he just hasn’t been able to produce the results he needs to get his career on track.

Bauer finished the season with a 4.55 ERA, after being shifted out of the rotation in September. The right-hander only made one relief appearance, but it was a disappointing end to what should have been a promising season. Despite his struggles, Bauer did strike out 170 batters in 176 innings – good for 22.9 percent of batters and his name on the leaderboards with 8.69 strikeouts per nine innings pitched – the seventh best in the American League. Of course, he also lead the league with 79 walks, but such is the story of his career thus far.

Bauer is a very, very good pitcher. Let’s be clear about that. But his stats don’t show how talented he truly is, because he’s just not getting the results one would expect from a pitcher of his pedigree. And that’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for fans, for teammates, for the organization, and mostly, frustrating for him.

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As outspoken as Bauer is about how much he works on his craft, it seems as though he takes the game very seriously – perhaps too seriously to get the walks and runs and losses out of his head before he makes his next start. The hot take here is that until Bauer gets a firm grip on the emotional side of the game, it doesn’t matter how physically or mentally talented he is.

Because Bauer has never had prolonged success at the major league level, last season’s results were fairly typical. Just as in prior seasons, Bauer posted a walk rate well-above average (10.6 percent compared to the league’s 7.8 percent) and a home run rate that is slightly above average (3.1 percent compared to 2.5 percent). His impressive strikeouts can only make up for so much, and until he gets the other areas of his game under control, his ERA and his FIP will remain much higher than they should be.

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With that said, there’s a reason Bauer was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks as a first round draft pick in 2011. He is the only player from that draft class to make his debut before the Tribe’s Cody Allen, who flew through the system for the Indians. But the Diamondbacks may have simply rushed him to the point that he is doing most of the development he should have done in the minors with at the major league level instead. Injuries and suspensions forced the Tribe to bring Bauer up from Columbus much sooner than they should have after he was traded to the Indians, and he hasn’t seemed to be able to get on track since then. For all the talk about Cleveland being too slow to bring up Francisco Lindor this year, it seems as though it’s much better from a development perspective to wait too long than not long enough, as they did in Bauer’s case.

Eventually, things will click for Bauer and he’ll become the stellar pitcher that everyone expects him to be. But at some point, should Cleveland start wondering if maybe it’s time to lower expectations and treat him like any other pitcher who posts 4.00+ ERAs every year? He should still be a lock for the Tribe’s rotation in 2016, because he’s only 24 with less than three full seasons of experience, but if his career doesn’t take off next year, the Indians should to examine the situation a bit more closely.