Jake Bauers came back to baseball for health insurance. The Milwaukee Brewers first baseman said so on the FOX Sports postgame set at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 14, after his two-run homer off Blake Snell sent Milwaukee to a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
The Brewers closed out a four-game sweep the next night with a 6-4 win, and Bauers was named NLCS MVP. He went 4-for-14 with a home run and six RBIs in the series, according to CBS Sports. He is the first LCS MVP in franchise history.
Bauers sat with Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter on the FOX broadcast. The conversation covered the offseason when he nearly walked away, the at-bat against Snell, and the gap between this October and last year’s NLCS, when the Dodgers swept Milwaukee.
Jake Bauers says health insurance brought him back to baseball
Bauers finished the 2024 season hitting .199 with 12 home runs in 116 games for Milwaukee. He refused an outright assignment to Triple-A Nashville on Nov. 4, 2024, became a free agent, and re-signed with the Brewers on a minor league contract on Jan. 6, 2025.
His wife’s pregnancy settled the decision.
“It’s been pretty special for me since that moment,” Bauers said. “To be completely honest with you, the only thing that brought me back was my wife got pregnant and I’m like, all right, well, we need health insurance for these kids.”
“And so that’s what brought me back,” Bauers continued. “And then made the team out of camp in ’25 and then just tried to re-examine the way I approach the game and just go out and compete and try and be free, and so that’s what it’s been about for me since then.”
Bauers hit 26 home runs in the 2026 regular season. His previous career high was 12, a total he reached in 2019, 2023 and 2024. He drew 94 walks and posted a .389 on-base percentage, according to The Associated Press.
Jake Bauers was sitting on an inside fastball against Blake Snell
Los Angeles took its first lead of the night in the sixth inning, when Will Smith’s two-run double off Abner Uribe made it 2-1.
Andrew Vaughn walked to open the seventh. Bauers fouled off five two-strike pitches before hitting the 11th pitch of the at-bat, a 97 mph fastball, 412 feet to right field, according to The Associated Press. Two nights earlier, his 12-pitch walk in Game 2 helped chase Yoshinobu Yamamoto from the game.
Snell praised Bauers after the game, saying he had thrown everything he had.
Each trip to the plate gave Bauers a better read on the shape of Snell’s pitches and where his barrel needed to be.
“Tonight, that third at-bat, he had been stuffing me in with fastballs,” Bauers said. “And so I went up for the third one, I was looking for a fastball in the inner lane the whole time, figuring if I can just adjust to anything else, I’ll wait them out and try and get the one I’m looking for.”
A changeup in the middle of the sequence caught him off guard. “The changeup surprised me a little bit,” Bauers said, adding that he is “always on fastball right there.”
Jake Bauers says the Brewers were ‘flying to a funeral’ in 2025
The Dodgers swept the Brewers in four games in the 2025 NLCS on their way to a second straight World Series title.
“The difference is belief. The difference is belief,” Bauers said. “I think last year we got to this point and we were just kind of happy to be there. We were happy to be there, happy for the opportunity. And then I think on the flight out to L.A. last year, we were kind of realizing we were flying to a funeral.”
“And, no, we believe this year. We believe this year,” Bauers added. “We know we can play with anybody. And when you’re locked in and you got 26 guys who believe that, it’s a special thing.”
Bauers called Brewers manager Pat Murphy the main piece of that attitude. He pointed to the sixth inning of Game 3, after the Dodgers went ahead.
“I think the culture we’ve built is a culture based around winning, but also having each other’s backs, and the good and the bad,” Bauers said.
“And so we lose the lead there in whatever inning that was, fifth, sixth, and I think the only thing the entire dugout was thinking was we gotta pick ’em up,” Bauers continued. “We gotta pick ’em up, we gotta win this game, we gotta find a way to win this game for Uribe. That’s what we’ve been about the entire season. I think it’s only intensified over the course of the postseason.”
Milwaukee went 103-59 in the regular season, so it holds home-field advantage in the World Series. The Brewers host the winner of the American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 on Friday, Oct. 23, at American Family Field. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. CT on FOX, according to MLB.com.
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