Bauer pointed out a problem with Bieber’s posture during a start this April, and Bieber said he thrived after correcting it. Mike Clevinger, a lanky right-hander who had 207 strikeouts in 200 innings last season, has become Bauer’s pet project.
“I joke with him about it all the time: ‘I’m, like, the athlete you’re building — you’re going to make me way better than you, and it’s going to be your fault,’” Clevinger, 28, said. “And he’s like: ‘I know, but you’re never going to be better than me.’”
Clevinger and Bauer have been in Cleveland together for three and a half seasons, but if Bauer leaves the Indians behind, he is not likely to commit to his new team for the long term. He will be eligible for free agency after the 2020 season, and while he said he wants to play 17 more years, he swears he will never sign a multiyear deal. That would make it possible for him, he says, to always be on a contending team and, he hopes, to be allowed to pitch every fourth day instead of every fifth.
“I’m not motivated by money,” he said. “It’s just about setting a new standard.”
‘Maturation isn’t celebrated.’
Bauer was drafted third over all out of U.C.L.A. by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2011 but was traded 18 months later after his biggest advocate in the organization, Jerry Dipoto, left to be the Seattle Mariners’ general manager. He still struggles to shake a label from his brief, rocky time with Arizona.
“Growth and maturation isn’t celebrated or isn’t talked about in society now,” Bauer said, adding later, “Is it possible that I was a bad teammate in 2012? Sure. Is it also possible that I’m a good teammate in 2019? Sure.”
Jason Kipnis, the Indians’ veteran second baseman, is among the many players who have sat down with Bauer to do an interview for his website, Watch Momentum, which showcases the charismatic side of Bauer.