MILWAUKEE -- Eight years after a wild, financially driven trade sent them onto radically different paths, Yandy Díaz and Jake Bauers are back in the same spotlight - only now they’re meeting in the World Series, with the Rays and Brewers opening Game 1 on Friday night at American Family Field.
The deal that linked them was messy from the start. It was finalized on Dec. 13, 2018, under strange circumstances, with executives involved in the move navigating a Southwest Airlines flight and, in Jerry Dipoto’s case, a Las Vegas hospital bed while dealing with blood clots in his lungs.
The transaction wasn’t really about Díaz and Bauers at the time. It was built around the contracts of Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Santana.
But as the 2026 World Series arrives, that old swap looks a lot different. Díaz and Bauers have become the central names attached to it.
“It’s crazy looking back on it,” Díaz said through an interpreter.
The trade was more complicated than a simple one-for-one exchange. It involved the Rays, Cleveland and the Mariners, with multiple deals happening at the same time.
Cleveland was trying to manage the $24 million it owed Encarnación for the 2019 season, while Seattle was responsible for $35 million to Santana across 2019 and 2020. Seattle also sent $6 million over two years to Cleveland, received $5 million from the Rays and got a draft pick that landed at No. 76 overall and became Isaiah Campbell.
Tampa Bay, meanwhile, used its financial flexibility to get involved and reshape its roster. The Rays moved on from Bauers, a 23-year-old prospect with upside but little certainty, and brought in Díaz, who was 27 and fit their infield better. They also acquired Sulser, who pitched briefly for them in 2019, later bounced around, and is now back in Tampa Bay’s World Series bullpen.
“It wasn’t so much a three-way trade; it was multiple trades happening simultaneously,” Guardians general manager Mike Chernoff recalled. “And I think Bauers was a young left-handed hitter who had some positional versatility as a possible first baseman, but he played some outfield, as well. The ability to get him as a potential first baseman of the future was an opportunity we wouldn’t otherwise get.”
Erik Neander framed it as a roster-fit move more than anything else.
“It was two teams that appreciate similar attributes and players and more a matter of, ‘How do you make two rosters more functional?’ We were transacting off of that premise.”
In the immediate aftermath, the veterans involved did what veterans often do: they settled in. Santana went back to Cleveland and produced a 2019 season that brought him his first All-Star selection and a Silver Slugger award. Encarnación gave Seattle a strong offensive season, finishing with an .888 OPS and 21 home runs.
The younger players, though, were left to sort out the long-term impact.
“It really wasn't on my radar at the time,” Bauers said. “Looking back, I think it was difficult to be 22, having just played my first season in the big leagues and to get traded when I wasn't necessarily in the best headspace after a tough year.”
Bauers had already been through plenty by then. Drafted by San Diego in 2013 straight out of high school, he had been part of the big Wil Myers deal that also sent Trea Turner to Washington. His first stretch in the majors was uneven - .201/.316/.384 in 96 games - but Tampa Bay still saw him and Willy Adames as part of its future.
The strange part is that both eventually found real success in Milwaukee colors.
“We don’t know what we’re doing,” Neander joked.
Díaz’s side of the story moved faster. Cleveland had used him in 88 games before the trade, but the Rays saw something others didn’t want to fully buy into.
He had huge exit velocities, yet his batted-ball profile was stubbornly ground-ball heavy, and not everyone in Cleveland was sold on the fit. Tampa Bay stayed patient, trusting his strike-zone judgment and betting that the power would arrive.
It did.
By 2022, Díaz was getting down-ballot AL MVP votes. In 2023, he won the AL batting title with a .330 average. Over the last five seasons, he has been 34% better than league average offensively, made two All-Star teams and launched 121 homers in a Rays uniform.
That success carried right into this postseason. During the 2026 ALCS, Díaz punished his former Cleveland team, going 9-for-27 with two home runs to close out the pennant.
Bauers’ climb was slower and rougher. He stumbled through two seasons in Cleveland, hit just .218, then moved on to Seattle and the Yankees.
The weight of that early trade never fully disappeared. But after a major mental reset in how he approached the plate, he rebuilt his career with Milwaukee.
In 2026, he hit 26 home runs with an .874 OPS, then capped it with an NLCS MVP performance.
Now the two players who were once pieces in a convoluted financial maneuver are standing on opposite sides of the biggest stage in baseball.
“I’m just happy for the both of us,” said Díaz, “and how it's worked out in our careers.”
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