How Trevor Bauer, the Ducks' controversial star, has built a social media following of more than 3 million

Trevor Bauer is bringing more than just pitching dominance to his debut season with the Long Island Ducks. The 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner has been the exiled king of social media, a content-producing machine with an XXL-sized following.

Ducks president and chief business officer Michael Pfaff called him “somebody that has a larger social media following than all 10 teams in the Atlantic League combined.”

His “BauerOutage” site stats indeed are staggering — in the neighborhood of 1.17 million subscribers on his YouTube feed, about 868,000 followers on Instagram, approximately 708,500 followers on TikTok and about 594,100 followers on X. That adds up to a little more than 3.34 million.

“So he’s got quite a great reach,” Pfaff said.

Bauer, who's  4-1 with a 1.41 ERA through five starts, is scheduled to pitch Sunday in Central Islip. The 35-year-old righty obviously would rather be in the major leagues. But he went on administrative leave when he was with the Dodgers in 2021 and then served a 194-game suspension because he was deemed to have violated MLB’s domestic violence/sexual assault policy. He denied any misconduct and wasn’t charged.

The Dodgers still released the outspoken 10-year vet in January 2023, and he has gone unsigned by MLB teams since. So after having to pitch in Japan and Mexico from 2023-25, he’s reaching the public from Long Island.

That reach has been a positive when Bauer is on camera via one of his social sites and tossing out advice for kid pitchers.

“I think it helps a lot,” Bauer told Newsday after setting the Ducks’ single-game strikeout record by fanning 15 Gastonia Ghost Peppers on Tuesday night at Fairfield Properties Ballpark. “It’s hard to see because you see like 10,000 views or 100,000 views or whatever, but you don’t see like which kid is seeing [it], how it’s helping.

“So like tonight one of the guys I was signing [autographs] for after the game said, ‘You’re singlehandedly getting me into baseball. Thank you.’ Those are like huge moments for me because it’s good to see it and feel it in person.

“There are a lot of kids that they DM me on Instagram all the time or when they come into my facility [in Arizona], they tell me all the time, ‘You taught me my curveball.’ Or ‘you taught me my slider and it’s been super-effective.’ ”

Robert Boland, a professor of sports law at Seton Hall Law School, a former athletic integrity officer at Penn State and an ex-sports agent, called Bauer “extremely polarizing” but sees an opportunity for him with his social media work and pitching work.

“If he can prove to be likable, accessible and have a different image on Long Island, maybe that’s his path back,” Boland said. “ . . . If he has a shot at it, this is the best way to reach it. And if he doesn’t, it’s the best way to change the narrative that fans and others would attach to him.”

Bauer mic'd up

Bauer’s unfiltered side can be visible at times, too. He has been mic’d up for practices and games, so his real-time thoughts are out there for all.

Take his home start vs. Lexington on May 2. There was a safe call at second on a bouncer up the middle. Bauer disagreed. He headed toward the umpire, spitting profane fire.

“Are you [expletive] kidding me?” Bauer said. “Hey, what the [expletive] are you doing out here? You missed that one and you missed that one. Are you kidding me? What the [expletive] is that? This guy has missed two already. He’s doing it on purpose. What the [expletive] is going on?”

Bauer wanted to be mic’d up this season.

“I’ve never seen content like that and I always wondered as a kid like, ‘What are these guys thinking?’ ” he said. “The most you get is someone has an elite performance and then after the game, they’re asked, ‘What was going through your head?’ You get some small answer.

“I just think it’s way cooler to be able to see live what’s actually going through your head as it develops and what you’re thinking about.”

His thinking again was transparent on May 8. Bauer pitched a proposal to major-league organizations on X the day after throwing seven shutout innings at Hagerstown.

The offer was to pitch for free in the affiliated minors and work his way up. If there were any issues with him, poor performance, trouble in the clubhouse, PR nightmare, just cut him; no risk to the team.

Nothing came of it.

Bauer told Newsday that his current situation, being on the outside looking in at MLB, is “really unfair.” But he’s trying not to dwell on it and is just trying to enjoy his time with the Ducks.

There are positive comments and there are negative comments about Bauer online, but the negative ones aren’t ruining his time here. He cited automated programming, saying, “More than 50% of the traffic on the Internet is bots.”

'Not one single negative comment in person' 

When he’s at the ballpark, the positivity flows freely in his direction.

After his record-setting 15th strikeout, there were chants of “Trev-or Bau-er” in the air. The love has been returned by Bauer signing autographs for every last fan who wants one.

“I can tell you I have never had not one single negative comment in person,” he said. “Not a single one in the last five years. No one’s out at the stadium booing me. No one’s coming up to me like ‘hey, you suck’ or any of the stuff on X.

“It just doesn’t matter when you train a bot to say negative stuff about me.”

His own basic social media intent is purely positive, according to Bauer.

“It’s great because I just enjoy entertaining the fans,” he said. “I’m trying to grow the game. My content is a blend of entertaining to try to get people who aren’t into baseball interested in it and then education. I’m trying to get the baseball players that are younger to have access to information that can make them better and help advance the game for them.

“My two goals getting into baseball were always to win a Cy Young and to make the training landscape easier for the next generation. I got goal No. 1, and now I’m trying to fulfill goal No. 2.”

He in essence is the star and executive producer online. His social stuff eventually will be available on Dugout TV, the Atlantic League’s streaming channel, which carries Ducks games on HomeTeam Network.

“He captures the content, he edits the content and then he releases the content,” Pfaff said. “Those are everything from an hour-long feature on his experience starting for the Ducks against our opponent to one-minute snippets that you see on his X account where perhaps he’s talking about tips for younger pitchers. He’s creating content constantly at the ballpark and on the road.”

Bauer remembers his days growing up in California.

“When I was a kid, there was really no access to information,” he said. “You had books that old big-leaguers had written, but there was no social media. You couldn’t just text a big-leaguer and ask a question.

“Now with the technology that we have, I’m trying to be accessible to the kids so that they can be healthier, throw harder, have better success, because I’d like them to be able to have access to the things that baseball has given me.”