Trevor Bauer Reflects on His European Baseball Experience

By Carter Cromwell

April 7th, 2025

Since his last appearance in Major League Baseball in 2021, Trevor Bauer has become something of a globetrotter, and that may well continue.

Bauer pitched successfully for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in 2023, and, a year later, was voted Pitcher of the Year in the Mexican League after posting a 10-0 record and striking out 120 batters in 83 innings for Diablos Rojos del Mexico.  He then re-signed with the NPB’s BayStars for 2025 and allowed just one run in his first start.  

Perhaps the most interesting sojourn, though, came following the 2024 season when he went to Europe and challenged hitters in both simulated and game action.  He pitched live batting practice against Swiss national team players, pitched for the Swiss team against the Czech Republic national team, and later faced a group of European players in a live batting practice session in London.  Baseball Jobs Overseas helped coordinate the London event.

Photo: The event in London was organized within a week prior to the event after Baseball Jobs Overseas connected with Bauer and his agent, Rachel Luba, in the Czech Republic and Switzerland. BBJO managed to find 15 players willing to fly themselves to London from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Sweden, and around the United Kingdom. 

Bauer’s participation grew from a relationship he and his agent, Rachel Luba, had with Chris Byrnes, then the coach of the Swiss national team.  

“Trevor and I had been in contact with Chris since 2020, the Covid year,” Luba said. “He had mentioned to me since last season that they were going to have a two-game set with the Czech club and that it would be great to have Trevor there.

“I ran it by Trevor, and he thought it would be a great idea.  He wanted to see what baseball in Europe was like, and neither of us had been exposed to it at that point.”

Bauer first spent time throwing live batting practice to the players on the Swiss team and learning about baseball in Switzerland.  The latter included a visit to a large sporting goods store that had just a single rack of baseball equipment and had more darts than baseballs for sale, as well as spending time a bar in Zurich called “Baseball in the City” that was owned by a man from the Dominican Republic.

“This place was awesome,” Bauer said of the bar. “It proves that, even in Switzerland, the Dominican Republic’s influence on baseball runs deep.”

The baseball facilities weren’t at the level of those where the game is more advanced.  The playing field was actually shared by a cricket ground and soccer field, whose goals stood in the outfield area, but Bauer called it “pretty cool”.

In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Bauer noted that there was no actual backstop behind the plate, just a net that he said was “probably not high enough to stop most of the foul balls.”  Bordering the park was a “refugee camp” and a mental health facility. 

Photo: Bauer pitched against the Swiss national team and random Swiss players from both the first and second divisions at the ballpark of second division Swiss team, the Embrach Mustangs. 

“Every now and then, people [from the mental health facility] will come out and walk directly through the field . . . in the middle of a game,” he said. “I hear, too, that there used to be a pen for donkeys and cows by the field, and you’d just have to play baseball around them.

“So if you come here to play baseball, you do it because you love baseball,” he added.  “There are a bunch of good people here who are passionate about the game and working to improve the facilities and the opportunities.”

In the game versus the Czechs in Prague, Bauer gave up three runs (two earned), five hits, and two walks while striking out three over five innings.

“I didn’t know they played baseball in the Czech Republic,” Bauer said in a video posted afterward, “so I pitched against their national team in a real game.  I was kind of rusty because I’d only thrown once in 10 days, but the Czech players had a good approach at the plate – very patient and not swinging at breaking balls much.  Their hitters seemed to like fastballs inside.”

Afterward, he was swamped by fans, players, and others wanting autographs and the chance to talk with him.  One report noted that Bauer “took over an hour and a half to get off the field, as he made sure to chat with all players and meet every fan at Eagles Park.”

The next event took place at London’s Finsbury Park, where Bauer threw live batting practice to a group of 15 European players from nine different countries.  The session was live-streamed on the Baaseball Jobs Overseas Instagram account, and Bauer later posted a video of the action on his YouTube channel.  During the session, he discussed his strategy for each hitter, gave out compliments for good performances, and even allowed a couple home runs.

“I gave up a lot more hits than I was hoping to,” Bauer said. “They came out early and swinging at fastballs and put some good swings together. So, I had to start throwing some off speed stuff. Yeah, I really had no idea what to expect about European baseball because I have never experienced it before.”

As was the case following the game against the Czechs, Bauer was besieged afterward.

“I stayed for over an hour afterward, taking pictures, signing autographs and answering questions,” he said.  “It surprises me that guys would fly from all over Europe just to talk with me.” In a post event interview with Bauer, Baseball Jobs Overseas COO, Jimmy Jensen said, “It’s everything to a lot of these guys.”

Bauer added that “It’s kind of cool to see everyone from different countries and loving baseball at an event like this where you can throw to some players and then answer some questions and [sign] autographs.” 

Elias Kreska, a catcher and member of the Austrian U-23 national team, was one of those.

“You might expect a guy like that to just make his pitches and then leave,” Kreska said, “but he stayed for a long time, and everybody appreciated it.”

Kreska, who plays for the Wiener Neustadt Diving Ducks of the Austrian First Bundesliga, had learned of the event two weeks prior via a text message and, at first, wasn’t sure if it was genuine.

“I got a text from Baseball Jobs Overseas and thought it might be a joke,” he said with a laugh.  “When I figured out that it was real, I got excited, but then I had to decide if I wanted to spend the money to fly over there.”

Eventually, he opted for a day trip, leaving on a flight around 6 o’clock in the morning and returning that evening, and found the experience to be well worth the cost. For one thing, as a catcher, he had the opportunity to both catch Bauer’s pitches and hit against him.  Though Bauer hadn’t thrown much in the days leading up to the event, he had velocity and command unlike what Kreska was used to seeing.

“I watched some video of him and thought about how it would be to catch him,” Kreska said. “He was really good, of course. He wasn’t difficult to catch in the sense that I could rely on him putting the ball where he wanted; It’s more difficult when a pitcher doesn’t have good command.  On the other hand, he has a lot more movement on his pitches than the guys we usually go up against, and he makes it look so easy.”

When he got his chance to hit (beginning at 4:38 in the video), Kreska managed an eight-pitch at bat before striking out swinging on a cutter.  

“I did better than I had expected,” he said. “I had thought that my only chance would be on the first pitch.  I was expecting a fast ball then, but he threw me back-to-back sliders for balls. He then came back to strike me out with some really good pitches.  Nevertheless, I thought it was a good at bat.”

Photo: Austrian player, Elias Kreska (left), was one of two catchers who got to catch for Bauer at the London event. 

In his videos, Bauer included some plugs for his “4APP Sports” app, which offers a program designed to help pitchers improve their velocity and command, while helping with injury prevention. Luba said, though, that that was not the motivation for the European tour.

“He’s always thought to integrate advertising into his content, but going over wasn’t part of advertising for the app,” she said.

She indicated that Bauer may continue spreading the word about baseball, as time allows.

“Trevor helps coach European pitchers through Zoom calls occasionally,” she said, “and he’d love to continue experiencing baseball around the world. He’s cared a lot about that for a long time. There are other parts of the world that have baseball and that he would like to visit. There is the Middle East, and we’ve talked about Africa.  He’s been to Australia, but maybe going back and exploring baseball more down there is a possibility. This is a great way that he can blend his content with traveling the world.”

Bauer said, “I’d like to do more coaching stuff over here. I love stuff like this, particularly the spread of information.  Baseball has given me a lot – financially, life experiences, friendships with teammates, bonding with my parents.  I’d like do a lot more coaching stuff.  I like to see more kids here getting those opportunities, especially in countries where baseball might not be as big as in places like America.”