Dodgers officially release Trevor Bauer after nonexistent trade market

In a classic Friday evening news dump last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced they were designating Trevor Bauer for assignment. The Dodgers had a week to work out a potential Bauer trade or else they would be forced to release him.

While it seemed for a brief moment that the Dodgers could have a savior to trade for Bauer, nothing ultimately came to be. The Dodgers officially released the 2020 NL Cy Young on Thursday.

This comes after a nonexistent trade market for the Dodgers. No team wanted to trade for Bauer now that his suspension has been reduced. He is free to sign with any team in the league for the minimum $720,000 salary.

Will Trevor Bauer find a new team after being released by the Dodgers?

Just because no team wanted to trade for Trevor Bauer does not mean there won't be any suitors for him as a free agent. There is a big difference between having to trade for someone who has a $22.5 million salary and signing a $720,000 free agent; especially when the Dodgers had zero leverage in the deal.

Nothing is guaranteed for Bauer but sports teams have shown time and time again that they are willing to overlook black marks on a player's resume if they can help them win games. Players such as Julio Urias, Aroldis Chapman and Domingo German (to name a few) have all been suspended under the league's domestic violence policy and were rostered last season.

But then there are also players like Roberto Osuna who were out of the league at 26 years old after serving a suspension. Osuna played after his suspension but was not pursued by any team once his contract with the Houston Astros expired.

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At the end of the day, the Dodgers stood true to their principles as an organization and they will be fine because of it. Los Angeles has more than enough pitching to survive without Bauer.