Let’s start with the positives: Jake Bauers is young. Jake Bauers is handsome.
Ok, everything else: Jake Bauers was pretty bad at baseball in 2019.
I don’t say that to be a hater (sorry, Mrs. Bauers), but it’s the bluntest truth I can say about Jake Bauers’s 2019 season. He just plain wasn’t good, and on most teams he wouldn’t have gotten 423 plate appearances while slashing .226/.312/.371 and playing sub-par defense at multiple positions.
But the Indians were desperate, they didn’t bother addressing their outfield woes in earnest, and if we’re being honest, they probably didn’t want to look like fools for dealing away Yandy Diaz.