Trevor Bauer has his green-and-black uniform. The Estrellas Orientales of San Pedro de Macorís officially introduced the former Cy Young winner on October 24, 2026, with his debut set for Tuesday, October 27 against the Águilas Cibaeñas at Estadio Tetelo Vargas. He arrives in the Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM) as only the second pitcher with that award in the circuit’s history — and he’s not showing up empty-handed.
What Bauer Brings to the Mound
The numbers from 2026 don’t read like a pitcher running on fumes. With the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, Bauer went 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA across seven starts — 42 innings, 31 hits allowed, 7 walks and 66 strikeouts. That’s a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 9.5, the kind of command that winter leagues almost never see walk through the door.
His stint with the Diablos Rojos in the 2026 Mexican Baseball League told a different story: 4-1 but with a 4.41 ERA in five starts and 31 strikeouts. Two different contexts, two different results. What the Estrellas are betting on is the full picture, not just the cherry-picked line.
Over his MLB career, Bauer owns a 3.79 ERA, an 83-69 record, a 1.24 WHIP and 1,416 strikeouts across 10 seasons. He’s 35 years old and hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021. What happens Tuesday at Tetelo Vargas will be the first real test of whether that changes.
The Second Cy Young Winner to Pitch in LIDOM
To find a Cy Young winner pitching in LIDOM before this, you have to go back to the 2018-19 season, when Bartolo Colón — the 2005 AL Cy Young winner with the Chicago White Sox — suited up for the Águilas Cibaeñas. Bauer, who took the 2020 NL Cy Young with the Cincinnati Reds after leading the league with a 1.73 ERA, is now No. 2 on that list.
The Estrellas also announced that Bauer is their sixth Cy Young winner in franchise history, per an EFE dispatch picked up by Infobae at the time the deal was signed in September.
And he’s not the only big name in the organization. Albert Pujols is serving as president of baseball operations for the Estrellas this 2026-27 season — the 73rd edition of LIDOM. Pujols in the front office and Bauer on the mound makes San Pedro de Macorís the team with the heaviest résumé in the entire winter circuit this year.
The Context That Doesn’t Go Away
Bauer was suspended 194 games by MLB — reduced from an original 324 by an independent arbitrator — under the league’s domestic violence policy, following allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct that he has always denied. He was never criminally charged, and in 2025 he won a related civil lawsuit. The suspension, however, was upheld. That’s the complete record: no full exoneration, no criminal conviction.
The Estrellas and their front office have leaned on his on-field performance as their central argument. The debate in English-language media and among segments of Dominican fans remains open.
What is settled is the date: Tuesday, October 27, 7:30 p.m., Estadio Tetelo Vargas, against the Águilas Cibaeñas. That’s where the baseball conversation begins.
