Trevor Bauer won’t rule out most expensive team in baseball

Bauer’s college feud with Gerrit Cole doesn’t eliminate Yankees from the chase

Cole was just one in a long line of doubters Bauer has since overcome. The two went to UCLA together, and Cole insulted Bauer’s work ethic, insisting that he had no future in baseball. That was a bold statement to make, and one that didn’t prove true to this day. Bauer hasn’t forgotten that criticism, but insists he doesn’t have a beef with Cole that still endures.

The Yankees are the most expensive team in the sport. While it seems like a longshot that Bauer would sign there, especially after Brian Cashman just inked his former college teammate to a lucrative deal last offseason, it’s smart of Bauer to not rule it out.

What would it take for the Yankees to sign Bauer?

We know the Yankees have the funds should they want, but Hal Steinbrenner may not want to spend a ton one offseason after a shortened season and decreased revenue. New York has more pressing needs, and if they want to add pitching it won’t be someone as capable, yet expensive as Bauer.

Not to mention, any past feud is drama the Yankees do not need. Bauer and Cole may say their relationship is peachy, but until we see it in person, there’s no telling whether these two former UCLA Bruins can get past it.

“I have no problem with Gerrit,” Bauer said in 2018. “We had a rocky relationship in college, because he told me that I had no future in baseball and he insulted my work ethic as a freshman. I don’t take kindly to those couple things, so we had our issues. And I have, I don’t know, those feelings have long since faded. Right now, it’s cool to see him having success. He’s done a lot of hard work. He’s changed his mechanics around. He’s changed his pitch repertoire and how he uses it and his attack plan and stuff like that, and he’s having a ton of success with it.”

That’s the same tune he’s been signing for the last two years, and it’s all led to his impeding free agent decision. Any player would be wrong to rule out the Yankees. Bauer is ahead of things, but that doesn’t mean his feud with Cole won’t bubble at the wrong time.