There are two big winners in the Trevor Bauer sweepstakes. Neither one is the Dodgers.
The first winner is Bauer, who turned brash self-promotion and two strong seasons into the two highest annual salaries in MLB history. This deal is the validation that baseball’s Mark Zuckerberg has craved all along. It’s a giant middle finger in the faces of all those who questioned his methods, the perfect mic drop for all those who dared to doubt him.
The second is the Padres, the pesky title-less franchise two hours down the coast (without traffic, anyway).