Trevor Bauer’s latest chapter in professional baseball isn’t about strikeouts or comebacks-it’s about another controversy.
In the fifth inning of a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) game, the former Dodgers pitcher-already infamous for his turbulent MLB exit-sparked outrage with a seemingly small gesture that carried massive weight in Japan’s culture of respect.
After getting Kaito Kozono to ground out, Bauer casually kicked the batter’s discarded bat on his way to the dugout. What happened next felt like poetic justice.
Two innings later, Kozono returned to the plate and ripped a triple off Bauer, igniting the stadium crowd. As Bauer trudged back to the mound, Kozono turned and shouted directly at him, a moment captured on video by @GaijinBaseball and now circulating widely online.
Bauer’s failed reboot
“In the 5th inning, Trevor Bauer got Kaito Kozono to ground out and then kicked his bat, walking into the dugout. Kozono tripled off Bauer in his next at bat, then yelled at him as he was walking back to the mound,” the account summarized.
For Bauer, who moved to Japan seeking a career reset after a 194-game MLB suspension under the league’s domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse policy, this incident is another strike against him.
The Dodgers cut ties with him in January 2023, and his NPB tenure was supposed to signal a clean slate. Instead, moments like this reinforce doubts that he can truly change.
Bauer’s career is on the line
On the field, things aren’t much brighter. Bauer currently holds a 4.06 ERA-the worst among qualified starters in Japan’s notoriously pitcher-friendly league-along with a 4-7 record. Fans are split between calling his behavior “competitive fire” and dismissing it as pure disrespect, but analysts are growing harsher.
“At this point, it seems any slim chance of him returning to MLB is gone,” one blunt take noted.
Baseball, as Kozono’s emphatic triple reminded everyone, has its own way of delivering justice.
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