3 Reasons why Trevor Bauer might choose the Seattle Mariners

Driveline Baseball, headquartered in Kent, WA has done a lot for Bauer’s game

Videos have surfaced of Bauer’s abnormal pregame routines and that is a part of Driveline Baseball’s workout regime. Driveline has gained more and more traction in the big leagues, helping baseball players reinvent themselves through heavy reliance on data analytics.

Bauer is the biggest MLB star that has relied on Driveline and has become a huge ambassador for the program, helping Driveline scale up. Since working together in 2013, Driveline helped Bauer improve his mechanical patterns and then his secondary pitches. A lot of the focus has turned to spin rate especially on secondary pitches, and Driveline was one of the first programs to preach it.

Driveline was founded in Washington state and still has headquarters in Kent. Kyle Boddy founded Driveline in 2007, who started the program to help young players learn about baseball. Boddy grew Driveline on the principle that the game was evolving and wanted to teach his clients how to maximize their potential.

In 2019, the Reds hired Boddy to a two-year contract as the director of pitching initiatives and pitching coordinator. He joined Caleb Cotham who was a new hire for the director of pitching, and a former Driveline trainee. This happened to be the same year Bauer was playing for the Reds so you could imagine Bauer did some persuading to get Boddy to join him in Cincinnati.

With all that being said, Driveline and Bauer have a close relationship and you wonder if that will have an impact on Bauer’s free-agency decisions. I think it will and be a good reason for Bauer to pick Seattle. The free-agent pitcher would have easier access to the headquarters during the offseason. According to the Seattle Times, Bauer already has a house in Maple Valley where he usually spends his offseason to commute to Driveline’s facility.