We Need to Talk About Trevor.

 

During one of the worst patches of the tumultuous 1977 season, the late, great Gabe Paul told the press:

"We judge players by what they do on the field. If we wanted all nice boys, we'd go to the church and collect them."

At the time, Paul had recently suffered a stroke, and the not-so-nice boys in the Yankees' clubhouse amused themselves by imitating his altered speech.

But I digress.

Generally, I agree with Gabe Paul. But I think perhaps Trevor Bauer stretches that maxim beyond the breaking point.

Let's start with how Mr. Bauer does on the field. The results are more mixed than you might think. 

Yes, Trevor won a Cy Young in the plague-shortened 2020 season, going 5-4 with a 1.73 ERA, in 11 starts for Cincinnati. The next season, before his (unfair) suspension, he went 8-5 for the Dodgers, in 17 starts. In 2018, he also had an excellent year for the Indians in 2018, going 12-6, 2.21. 

And...that's sort of it. In his other 7, major-league seasons, Bauer never posted an ERA under 4.18. He's a decent pitcher, but an uneven one, and always has been. Also, he's 33 and has not pitched in the majors since that 2021 season. 

Now, about the other stuff...

The guy is a kochleffl, a pot stirrer. Sometimes that's a good thing on a team—someone who will shake things up, get other guys to play harder. 

Sometimes, as we have seen oh so often in New York, on oh so many times, that's just a big distraction—someone who is more interested in himself than anything else. 

From what I can see, Trevor Bauer is the second kind, a guy who can never resist getting into it with the press, with fans, and with any other passing object of his ire.

I agree with JM that he hardly got due process from MLB or the Pasadena PD over his alleged assault on Lindsey Hill back in 2021. But then, according to Wikipedia—I am relying on Wiki here, as following loutish ballplayers is one of the things I like least about sports today—there was another woman who got a temporary protection order against him in 2020, and a third woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2022 and 2023.

Hey, he denies it all. But as I said about Al Franken at the time, when there's another woman, and another woman...

Rufus T. Firefly asks what about the Yanks signing Aroldis Chapman. Well, exactly Rufus. As Sarah Palin might have asked, how'd that work out for us? 

The Yanks never should've traded for a guy who shot at his wife, and they especially should never have signed him again.

As for Bauer, well, it just goes on and on.

NBC sports reporter Bill Baer calls Trevor "extremely online." That seems to be an understatement. 

Here were some of the things upon which the pitcher expressed himself:

"He identifies as a free market capitalist and a social liberal. Although he did not vote in the 2016 United States presidential election, Bauer has expressed his personal support of Donald Trump, whom he believed 'would shake up the system.'...In February 2017, Bauer accused Apple and Twitter of purporting a liberal media bias, after which he proceeded to express a variety of political beliefs, including climate change denial, skepticism that [President] Obama was born in the United States, and a defense of the Indians' mascot, Chief Wahoo. In 2018, Bauer accused the Indians of restricting his Twitter access in order to censor his political commentary..."

Blah, blah, blah. Hey, he's a free citizen, and is allowed to express himself on anything he wants. But think this is not going to prove a distraction in the very fraught election season we are moving into?

And here's another quote from Wiki:

"In January 2019, Bauer responded to a female college student who referred to him as her "least favorite person in all of sports" by tweeting at her over the course of 12 hours and encouraging his followers to partake as well."

So, "Don't you dare censor me. But if you criticize me in turn, I'm calling in the mob!" Sounds sort of like...what was that concept again? Oh, yeah. Hypocrisy.

And then there's this:

"After receiving a higher salary than expected during an arbitration hearing in 2018, Bauer launched a charity campaign called "69 Days of Giving", where he promised to donate an exact amount of US$420.69 to 68 charities selected by his fans. The final charity, decided by Bauer, would receive a donation of US$69,420.69...Bauer chose his donation amounts based on the connotations around the numbers 420, typically associated with cannabis culture, and 69, an oral sex position. He believed that employing a campaign around sex and drug references would help market the charitable contributions."

Oh, the little scamp! Yeah, Mom and Dad are gonna love this guy. 

And then there are the lawsuits. Against Deadspin and The Athletic, and an individual reporter, and an editor. All dismissed or dropped, incidentally. Makes you wonder how much time he spends consulting with lawyers, though...

Look, I thoroughly believe this horse's ass should be allowed to hold whatever beliefs he wants, and to spew them all over the internet, if he so chooses, and to launch frivolous lawsuits against all the world. It's the American way.

But I don't recall Reggie and Billy and Thurman, at their most obnoxious, ever boring us with their views on sex and drugs and politics, or suing the press. I don't remember A-Rod, at his most insufferable, siccing an online mob on a woman college student who dared to criticize him. 

We already have two starting oafs who have a lot of trouble behaving in public. Now we want a third? No, thanks.