Brewers succeeded where Mariners failed in unlocking NLCS MVP Jake Bauers

At what point does a guy become a "journeyman?" Maybe after playing for five different MLB organizations? If we can agree on that, then the remarkable thing is that Jake Bauers didn't technically deserve the label when he served a brief stint with the Seattle Mariners five years ago.

They were only his fourth organization, after he had been drafted by the San Diego Padres and spent time with the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians organizations. He was arguably a top-50 prospect at one point in the late 2010s, but that shine was long gone when the Mariners acquired him in a low-risk trade with Cleveland in June of 2021.

This was around when, after five years, Jerry Dipoto's rebuild was finally showing promise. The Mariners went 28-27 through the end of May that year, a nice step up after two dismal seasons in 2019 and 2020. And while Bauers came with -0.4 rWAR on his major league ledger, he was still just 25. At that age, teams are still willing to overlook the F-word in "former top prospect."

Or, as then-manager Scott Servais put it:

"It takes some players longer to figure it out the big-league level. Sometimes it’s a (different) coach or it’s just being in a different uniform that can help somehow flip the switch and allows that player to take off and relax. It happens to multiple players every year in our game. It happened to me in my career. You get an opportunity to play a little bit people look at you a little bit differently. They see it through a different lens and maybe they can unlock something and hopefully that’s what we can do with Jake."

Scott Servais

Fine idea. It's too bad there were never any results to show for it. Bauers ended up getting 202 plate appearances for the Mariners, and he managed just a .572 OPS, two home runs and 13 RBI.

He was granted free agency after the season, and proceeded to join his fifth (Cincinnati Reds), sixth (New York Yankees) and seventh (Milwaukee Brewers) organizations before eventually pondering retirement after the 2024 season. He kept playing because he and his wife got pregnant and the couple needed health insurance, so he re-signed with Milwaukee for 2025.

What the Mariners thought of Jake Bauers in 2021 hits different in 2026

Why is all that history worth getting into? Well, because it makes it both hard and easy to believe that we're talking about the same Jake Bauers who was just named the NLCS MVP on Thursday.

The same guy who couldn't muster even a .600 OPS as a Mariner just posted a .983 OPS in Milwaukee's four-game sweep of the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. He worked masterful at-bats against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 and Blake Snell in Game 3. He drove in runs in each of the last three games of the series, including three in the clincher with a bases-loaded walk and two-run double.

It's all part of an ongoing ascendancy for the 31-year-old. Bauers was a pleasant surprise in 2025, posting a 111 OPS+ in 85 games. He was more like a star this season, setting the stage for his October dominance with a 140 OPS+ and team-leading 26 home runs.

What we have here, then, is a case of Servais having been right about Bauers in 2021. Servais was just too early, and Bauers was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The physical tools and the good eye to own the batter's box were always there with Bauers. He just needed to be able to find simplicity and clarity, which he finally did upon joining the Brewers. Whether that came from years of experience, ample runway, insight from the team or some combination of all of the above, the proof is in the pudding.

Ultimately, there's little point in being upset at the Mariners for not knowing what they had when they had Bauers. They clearly did know, and their failure to tap into what Bauers could do is a failure that is hardly unique to them. The Padres, Rays, Guardians, Reds and Yankees know that pain, too.

One prefers to think that Bauers needed all of them as stepping stones to get to where he is now. And if it's any consolation, at least there's no Josh Fields component to this story for the Mariners. They traded Damon Casetta-Stubbs for Bauers back in 2021, and he's been out of affiliated baseball since 2022.

So, here's to Jake Bauers. Former Mariner. Current hero. Proud journeyman.

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