Bauer's offseason a little shorter than most

PITTSBURGH -- When the offseason begins Monday for the Reds, a majority of the players will go home and spend at least a month letting their bodies recover before they ramp them back up to prepare for 2020.

Not starting pitcher Trevor Bauer. He gets back to work almost immediately.

“I throw an exit bullpen on Tuesday and another exit bullpen for pitch design and stuff like that on Friday. I’ll only take about 16 days off this year, the fifth [of October] through the 21st,” Bauer said on Sunday. “But that time is spent doing rehab stuff, just getting my scapula function back and my corrective exercises. I really don’t take any time off.”

Bauer will resume his throwing program on Oct. 21, and he plans to start throwing to hitters a couple of days after Thanksgiving.

“I’ll probably log 30-40 innings in the offseason to hitters up at Driveline,” Bauer said. “I’ll log all of my hours, all of my throws and all that different stuff. I’ll be able to tell you guys when I get to Spring Training what I actually did.”

Bauer lives near Houston but makes much of his offseason base in Seattle, so he can workout at Driveline Baseball, a data-driven performance training facility.

The Reds had to scratch Bauer from his final start on Saturday, and then again on Sunday, because of an illness. It was disappointing for the right-hander that he couldn’t face the Pirates.

“The most important thing to me is to be able to take the ball when it’s my turn,” Bauer said. “Regardless of results, I’m proud of that. I took the ball every start this year, so it sucks to miss one at the end. It just wouldn’t have made sense to pitch, given how I felt and how limited my activity has been the last four or five days.”

Over 35 starts and 213 innings this season -- both career highs -- Bauer finished 11-13 with a 4.48 ERA, 184 hits and 82 walks. His 253 strikeouts were also a career high, but so were the 34 home runs he allowed.

Bauer, 28, was acquired in a July 31 three-team trade that sent right fielder Yasiel Puig to Cleveland, then he went 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA in 10 starts for the Reds. He also dealt with ankle and back injuries while with the Indians but did not miss any time.

“Overall, it was a very frustrating season for me because I know how much better I am than the results I put up,” Bauer said. “But there is a lot of positives to take from it, too. I think going into next year, I’ll be back to my normal self. I’ll be healthy. I’ll have much better command like I would’ve had this year had I not been hurt. There was a lot of good things to take from it.”