Trevor Bauer stepped onto the mound at Estadio Tetelo Vargas on Thursday, October 29, 2026, and made history before throwing a single pitch in official competition: he became the first foreign-born player to pitch in the Dominican Winter League after winning a Cy Young Award in the majors. Bauer claimed that honor in 2020 with the Cincinnati Reds, posting a 1.73 ERA in one of the most dominant short-season performances in recent memory.
The distinction carries an important footnote. Bartolo Colón — who won the 2005 AL Cy Young with the Chicago White Sox — also pitched in LIDOM, suiting up for the Águilas Cibaeñas in 2018-19. But Colón is Dominican. He came home. Bauer is a foreigner signed as an import, and that is precisely where the record stands: no player from outside the Dominican Republic had ever arrived at the winter league with a Cy Young already on the shelf.
Five Innings, One Loss, One Record Still Standing
The debut did not go the Estrellas Orientales’ way. Bauer worked five innings, allowing one unearned run on two hits, issuing five walks, and striking out four. Solid enough for a starter who has been away from MLB for four years. The trouble was everything that came after him: the Águilas Cibaeñas won 5-2 in 11 innings, with their pitching holding the Estrellas to just one hit for the entire game.
The loss dropped the Estrellas to 5-4 on the season in the 2026-27 LIDOM campaign — the league’s 73rd edition, which opened on October 16. The Águilas improved to 3-6. The game had originally been scheduled for Tuesday the 27th but was pushed back two days after heavy rain hit the Dominican Republic.
Why the Record Is Specific — and Why That Matters
It is worth being precise about what the record actually says. When Bartolo Colón pitched in LIDOM, he was returning to his home country after winning a Cy Young. Dominican Cy Young winners Pedro Martínez (1997, 1999, 2000) and Sandy Alcántara (2022) never went back to pitch in the winter league after earning the award. Bauer is the first outsider — contracted as a foreign import — to show up in the Dominican league with a Cy Young in his biography.
He is also the sixth Cy Young-associated pitcher in Estrellas Orientales history, but the first of those six to arrive at the club after already winning the award.
The Long Road to San Pedro de Macorís
Bauer’s path to LIDOM is unlike anything you typically see from a former Cy Young winner. MLB suspended him for 324 games in 2022 for violating the league’s domestic violence policy, and he has not returned to the majors since. He pitched in Japan with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars from 2023 through 2025, then came back stateside with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League in 2026 — going 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA, 66 strikeouts in 42 innings across seven starts — before a stint with the Diablos Rojos del México in the Mexican League, where he went 4-1 with a 4.41 ERA.
The Estrellas Orientales signed him in September 2026 on a deal worth more than $55,000 per month, making him the highest-paid import in LIDOM history. Baseball operations for the organization this season are led by Albert Pujols.
Over his MLB career, Bauer finished 83-69 with a 3.79 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, and 1,416 strikeouts across 10 seasons. The controversy around him does not disappear — but neither do the numbers.
