Bauer tweaked his slider during the offseason in an attempt to emulate teammate Corey Kluber's slurve and Marcus Stroman's curveball, Zack Maisel of The Athletic Cleveland reports.

EDGE Analysis

Notorious for his ever-changing arsenal and exhaustive video study, Bauer spent the offseason modeling Kluber and Stroman in an attempt to find a more effective off-speed offering. Bauer, who said he logged around 30 innings over the winter to test out the new pitch against hitters, believes the slider will result in more lateral breaking and translate to weaker or less contact. Bauer has found success in his first two spring outings to date, conceding just one run and striking out seven over five innings, but it's difficult to draw any conclusions from that small of a sample. Regardless, it appears likely that the slider will become a larger part of Bauer's pitch mix in 2018 after he used the offering just 0.4 percent and 5.6 percent of the time in 2016 and 2017, respectively.