Bauer Latest In Line of MLB Successes from 2012 Aces Squad 

2012 sure feels like a long time ago, but let’s take a trip back to the Reno Aces’ Triple-A National Championship season from eight years ago. The roster was stacked with talent, some of which is still making noise in the bigs.

For starters, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner was on the team. Before he led the league in ERA and finished 10th in MVP voting, Trevor Bauer was a Reno Ace. Since moving up to the bigs with Arizona, the right hander has posted 75 wins, a career 3.90 ERA as well an All Star spot in 2018. Then came the breakthrough 2020 campaign where he led the league with a 1.73 ERA just one year after a career-worst 6.39 ERA.

Bauer isn’t the only member of the team to see big league success, or the most recent. Outfielder AJ Pollock will soon be getting a shiny piece of jewelry courtesy of the LA Dodgers’ first World Series win since 1988. Pollock, who has also been to an All Star game, sports a .279 career batting average in his nine-year MLB career. The World Series and Triple-A rings will have to fit in next to a Gold Glove as well. The native of Connecticut boasts over 100 career long balls as well, hitting 14 or more home runs in in five of the last six seasons. The long outlier was an injury-shortened 2016 season where he only appeared in 12 games.

Pollock’s World Series win marked the second-straight season a member of the 2012 team was walking away from the Fall Classic with a win. Adam Eaton won it with the Nationals in 2019. Not only was Eaton in Reno in 2012, he posted possibly the best offensive season in team history.

Eaton led the PCL and set Reno records for single season average (.381), runs (119), hits (186), doubles (46), stolen bases (38) and on base percentage (.456). One more time, because of just how insane that is. Eaton led the league and set team records, that all still stand, in six different offensive categories.

And to put the 38 stolen bases into perspective, only two Reno players have recorded more for their career. Eaton did it in one season.

He also finished with the most total bases in the league, which at the time was a Reno record. But his total of 263 has been knocked down to a tie for fifth in the years since. His OPS of .995 was the second-most in a single season at the time, and currently the fourth-most in the team's history.

It should come as no surprise that after a season like that, Eaton has spent most of his time in the bigs. In the nine years since, he’s hit .282 with 60 homers and 289 RBIs. And has a World Series ring.

Joining him on both the 2012 team and the Nationals’ 2019 team is pitcher Patrick Corbin. Yet another MLB star to come from that team, Corbin has twice been selected to an All Star game finishing fifth in Cy Young voting in 2018 and 11th in 2019. In eight big league seasons, Corbin boasts a 3.84 ERA and 72 wins.

The team featured two of the longest tenured Aces as well in Cole Gillespie and Mike Jacobs, first and second all time in game played, respectively. It also featured Jonathan Abaladejo, who is fourth on the team’s all-time saves list thanks to a team-record 25 in the 2012 season.

In 2012 it was clear that the Aces team was stacked. But eight years later and looking back on three World Series rings, a Cy Young award, four All Star appearances and a Gold Glove, it’s clear the team was built for MLB success. Trevor Bauer’s Cy Young award this week was just the most recent example.