I sometimes make the mistake of reading baseball deals and signings with logic. The reality is nothing makes sense, GMs know more than I do and nothing can be properly predicted. I cling to stats and history because it's all I can really use to direct where I think something's going, and sometimes that's not accurate. The Angels signing Anthony Rendon in 2020 WAS a good move. That he didn't play well at all during the contract isn't something that anyone could have predicted. Same with Lance Berkman joining the Cardinals, it may not have looked like a good move but it helped revitalize the lineup and resulted in a World Series ring.
So I say this disclaimer because I admit that my perception is flawed, and that I don't really know as much as the people who make and sign off on these deals.
...That being said, the Jake Bauers to Boston thing doesn't make any sense to me.
I mean, it sort of does if you can believe the bullshit of the baseball life. Bauers failed as a prospect, bounced around as a backup bat, came off the bench in New York and Milwaukee and this year was one of the best hitters in baseball. Bauers's season was seen as a feel good story, the guy who nearly gave up on the game, pressed on and somehow got incredible and won a World Series. So by the Red Sox' logic, Bauers always was a great player, and circumstances finally came together this season for him to become a terrific hard-hitting 1st baseman, who can now continue to be that hard-hitting 1st baseman for the next four years for them.
Now...here's the thing. Jake Bauers, as has become public now, was going to retire after the 2024 season. To recap, by 2024, he'd had a cute bench season with the Yankees, then was flipped to the Brewers for two prospects who are still in the minors [great job Cashman, I'll deal with you later], had a mediocre year as a bench man in Milwaukee, and was gonna throw it in. The idea was gonna be he'd stay at home with his kid, his wife would go back to work, teach probably, and that would be that. However, as we now know, Lauren Bauers was pregnant with their second child, and to keep benefits, Bauers would need to continue playing.
I know it's never a good idea to brush into any political topic in this space, but if there was a comprehensive health care system that didn't rely solely on steady jobs and consistent work to keep it active, we would not be in this situation. If this was Canada or the Netherlands or whatever, Bauers would retire, take care of the kids, and his baseball career would be seen as a bump along the road. But because of the American healthcare system, in order for Bauers to be an integral member of society, he needed to return to work while his wife had the kid. And it was that motivation, solely for the benefit of raising a family without breaking into a lower financial bracket, that led Bauers to a bounce-back 2025 as a bench bat and eventually a landmark 2026 season as the Brewers' starting 1st baseman, and eventually to the Red Sox.
Okay. So Bauers has solved the problem. He will now be getting 58 million dollars, essentially for the recreation of his best season spread across four more. He's saved his family, he can probably retire in 7 years to Framingham or something, the financial troubles are over. This is the end of the movie, though. The movie doesn't end with 'and then Jake Bauers played for the Red Sox for four seasons and sort of recreated the magic'. Because honestly, that doesn't matter as much as 'Jake Bauers has the best season of his life and saves his family'. THAT's the movie. Chris Pratt'll whine that the Oscars didn't respect his vision and everything.
The fire that was under Bauers for this season was getting his family under a stable roof, and he did that. Now that he's getting the money, that motivation isn't there. And so there's a conversation about 'did Bauers have that season BECAUSE he needed to save his family, or was this talent always going to be unlocked with the right circumstances?'. And that's a really tricky conversation, it's nature and nurture really- you don't know. We'll never know if, had there not been a financial need to perform, Bauers would still have a terrific season in 2026. Although next season, whenever that may be, might be the closest thing to a trial run at that. With the Sox, Bauers will be expected to succeed to the standard he did in Milwaukee, with a similarly well-crafted team, and lots of space to play. Will he do as well without that motivator? Will it prove how important the motivator was to his 2026 success.
And yes, this whole thing is a really messed up thing to ask about a player's performance. Ideally, we'd be in an economical situation that did not rely upon quantity of work in order to justify one's right to live. There is likely going to be a lockout in a month's time that hinges on the question of 'how far are we willing to go to nullify the right to reward a worker for his merits in a time when, universally, the worker is routinely devalued?'. But this is what's come to light. And it came to light in a way that initially framed Jake Bauers' story as an inspirational one. There's often an attempt made by a governing body to frame stories like this as inspirational in an attempt to dissuade people that the system is flawed. A whole school pooling sick days to give to their colleague who wasn't allowed sick leave. A crowdfunded effort to save a beloved voice actor's family from poverty after it's made clear how difficult it was for the man to support his family to begin with. And it's framed as 'look at how great this is. Look at how they succeeded'. Ignoring the failures in the system. Jake Bauers being forced into playing baseball again, becoming a hero and getting a payday [to play 4 more years] is going to be framed as inspirational. There are aspects that are pretty cool. But it makes it clear that we only really value workers when their struggles are made to be palatable to us. We can't just value them for doing their job normally, as Bauers is being paid to do.
And let's also mention that Pat Murphy knew this was going to happen. When they won, Murphy said to Bauers, "you're gonna make a lot of money", and that he should remember this team "when you're playing for that horseshit Yankee team". Basically saying, 'you're gonna get your payday and you won't have to play well anymore to keep your job, but remember what this felt like'. And Murphy got a lot of shit for that, but he's right. Brian Cashman pays people to play for the Yankees, he doesn't pay them to win a World Series. He pays them to keep the brand alive. Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Cody Bellinger, they've all taken massive paydays from the Yankees as rewards for excellent seasons. Them having great seasons after that is a nice perk, but they're there as a benefit of playing well, without the incentive to continue playing well. This is essentially what the Bauers Sox contract is. Obviously the Sox want to win, but Bauers's deal is a reward for his Brewers season, with an added 'if you keep doing that and help us win a ring, that'd be great'. And Bauers is aware of this. If he wanted to push himself to what got him a 2026 season, and honestly a ring, he wouldn't have taken the money. This is job security for Bauers. He needed that, famously. And now he has it for four years. Having a 30-homer season as an all-star for Boston would be a nice perk, but it doesn't as matter as much as what got him this contract.
There's other issues I have with the Bauers deal. Again, you're giving a big deal to a guy who only has one truly great season under his belt. You're also moving your star 1st baseman to DH, and I feel as though the Sox have done this before with a star hitter and it didn't go very well. Also, consider the fact that Contreras has been seen as pretty volatile in the past, and is the kind of guy you really don't want to piss off. At best, this is a Mike Lowell kind of addition for the Sox, at worst it's another misguided move that dilutes what could be a strong run. Really the moral implications are what makes this such an odd deal. It's a deal where the actual results on the field arguably don't really matter as much as the act of actually getting the money, and it's a picture of where baseball is today, and where the world is today.
Again, this is hard to discuss because it's not as simple as 'he had a good season because he needed to', obviously there were circumstances that came together. But it's an odd comeback story [sidenote: he didn't even get Comeback Player of the Year? What the hell did Zack Wheeler come back from comparatively? Being snubbed for a Cy Young three times??], and an odd route to success that may not completely be taken at face value, despite the intrinsic want to take it as it is. Much like this contract.
I don't know how many other signings we're gonna get til Manfred decides the fun's over til July, but I doubt anything will be as loaded as this one. Then again, I could be surprised.