Just Say No To Trevor Bauer
Not just the Orioles, but no MLB team should kick the tires...
There has been a plethora of pitching injuries not just to start the season, but also a couple months in. Over the weekend, the Baltimore Orioles received news that they’re going to lose John Means and Tyler Wells due to UCL injuries and will require surgery. And while it remains to be seen whether or not they’ll receive Tommy John Surgery (TJS), it’s not great news for the Orioles.
There isn’t much data out there in regard to trendlines for Tommy John Surgeries, but there is one man who has been a pioneer in the field of not just collecting that data but maintaining it as well. His name is Jon Roegele. That’s not the point of this article, but I did want to specifically call it out as it’s something I ran into lately and you might find it very interesting. A link to the Google Sheet is here. Oh, and if you can kick the man a few bucks, here’s his PayPal Me link. He’s been maintaining this list for over a decade.
Alright, back to the topic on hand.
Assault Allegations
If you’re a member of any MLB fan forum on Facebook, you’ve probably seen your favourite team fans clamoring for/against signing Trevor Bauer. This has been ongoing for a while now.
Prior to the start of the season, Trevor Bauer made news by saying he’s only asking for the league minimum to play for an MLB club in 2024. That would be about $740k per CBS Sports. Bauer was playing for the Asian Breeze team and was pitching against Dodgers prospects. Reportedly no MLB scouts attended that game.
Flash forward to June, and there’s been 15 MLB players that have had Tommy John Surgery since that Trevor Bauer start. And yet there has been zero interest from MLB clubs.
Why is that the case? Certainly, some MLB club bereft of morals or nary a care in the world in regard to drama would be interested. Yet nothing!
May I suggest that there is a hell of a lot more under the covers aside from a trifecta of assault allegations? For those that aren’t aware of the assault allegations, that trifecta includes the domino that kicked off Bauer’s administrative leave from the Dodgers back in June 2021, an uncovered order of protection from Bauer’s days with the Cincinnati Reds, and a 3rd woman accused him of sexual assault.
But First, Rubenstein Should Just Say No
David Rubenstein is the newly minted owner of the Baltimore Orioles, leading an ownership group that took over the helm in early 2024. He’s built up a ton of goodwill from the city and is currently in a honeymoon phase for fans, personnel, and players alike.
What would it mean if one of the first high-profile moves of his tenure was that of picking Trevor Bauer by paying the league minimum when no other team has taken a shot on him? Well, it’d send a very negative message to the women of the front office, the fans, and the wives/girlfriends/mothers of the team. It would send an incredibly poor message that the 3 assault allegations (that are currently public, who knows if there are more) are going to be pushed aside in the name of the potential of adding another ace to the Orioles pitching staff.
But, if - and this is a big if - Rubenstein (and Elias alike) were able to look past the assault allegations, there is still the manner of all the underlying drama that comes with Trevor Bauer’s personality.
Social Media Harassment
Let’s be frank for a second. There are two types of people: people that legitimately enjoy Trevor Bauer’s personality and those that don’t. Not being political here, but his fandom reminds me a lot of the Donald Trump and Elon Musk fans. And that’s not a compliment. They’re usually lackeys and well…this is the meme that really describes it:
The thing about Trevor Bauer is that he has a massive following on social media. And the followers are pretty rabid. Most athletes have thicker skin, that is - they typically don’t engage much on social media. That’s usually a pretty good mantra to follow. After all, they are routinely yelled at while on the field doing their job, why respond to the masses in a less stressful situation in which interactions are easily saved and litigated both in actual courts and the court of public opinion?
Well, that happened with a college student back in 2019. And since then, has happened time to time. Either way, you can read things for yourself here.
The question becomes this: does Elias and Rubenstein want to have to constantly police Bauer’s social media antics? Do they want to deal with the fallout? Do they want to have the teammates defend him? Or put them in a precarious situation *not to defend him*? It’s not worth it.
Teammates
The Trevor Bauer acolytes love to quote Mookie Betts who said back in 2023:
My experience with Bauer is not anything remotely close to what everyone else’s experience is. I love him. I think he’s an awesome guy. The personal things? I have no control. I have no say. Obviously, nothing ever came from it.
But Mike DiGiovanna, writer for the LA Times, had this to say in his piece titled, “2021 hindsight: Inside the Trevor Bauer disaster and how the Dodgers got here“:
Two people with knowledge of Dodgers clubhouse dynamics, who are unauthorized to speak publicly about the situation, said that a majority of players do not want Bauer back under any circumstances.
Mookie’s take is of the ole, “Well he didn’t say or do anything bad to me” variety. Not exactly a profile in courage, similar to that of Patrick Mahomes defending Harrison Butker. But it completely negates what the locker room thought about him. And this isn’t the only situation where teammates didn’t like the guy. It’s been a trend since college around Gerrit Cole. And while Bauer has changed his stories 6 ways to Sunday, where there is smoke, there’s fire.
Miguel Montero was Trevor Bauer’s catcher back in 2012 when he pitched for the Diamondbacks. And Montero really has never held back about his thoughts. Some are captured here, but I’ll throw down some quotes from the piece:
Their relationship, if it could even be called that, quickly became strained, with the two disagreeing first about pitch selection and then about whether or not they were going to meet about a game plan for Bauer's next start.
The following spring, months after Bauer was traded to the Cleveland Indians, Montero spoke out again, saying Bauer never listened to him, never wanted to learn.
And Montero’s quotes:
"Obviously, we wanted him to be good," Montero said. "But for some reason, he felt like everybody was against him. That wasn't the point. We were on his team. We wanted him to be good and do good for our team and for him."
Montero said learning how to call games for young pitchers is one of the most difficult parts of his job.
"Sometimes it bothers me if (pitchers) throw everything that I put down," he said. "I don't always have the right answer. Sometimes I don't call the right pitch and they don't feel like throwing it, but they throw it because I called it. I like them to be confident in what they want to do."
This trend would continue into Cleveland. If you want a taste for the kinds of crap that Bauer would say in the media about his teammates, he’d say junk like this (in the SI piece):
He will drop everything to help out a teammate who asks, he says, but most don’t. “I could’ve fixed Cody Allen’s curveball in two days last year, but I couldn’t tell him anything because he’s a veteran and he doesn’t want to listen,” Bauer says.
And into Cincinnati. With Joey Votto, of all people:
It happened in the fourth inning, when Colin Moran grounded to the right side of a shifted infield. Shortstop Jose Garcia fielded the ball and threw a lob to Votto in what had the makings of a very routine play. Except the ball grazed off Votto’s glove and sailed away for an error.
“Just whiffed it. Just missed it, just a plain physical error," Votto said on Saturday. "Yeah, just didn't catch it."
That error opened the door to a big three-run inning for Pittsburgh, which took a 3-2 lead. Following the third out, a dugout camera caught Bauer screaming, presumably at Votto, before he headed for the tunnel.
Which wasn’t the first time!
It was the second straight start in which Bauer has openly shown displeasure with a Votto play. On Aug. 29, in Game 1 vs. the Cubs, Votto couldn’t get his glove down enough on a would-be double play ball by Jason Heyward, and the Reds settled for one out. That led to a run for Chicago.
He’d also routinely throw his teammates under the bus through the media. Some more nuanced, some right in your/their face.
Trouble in Japan
Trevor Bauer is an incredibly passionate baseball player. But, there are ways to motivate, encourage and even help your teammates. That didn’t exactly happen early in his Japanese career when he could be seen visibly yelling, “WAKE UP!” to his teammates as well as cussing at/near them. This was after Bauer, instead of throwing the easy out to 1st base, fielded a grounder and ran it over himself. He apparently was dismayed at some sloppy rundown plays earlier. Either way, this is a case of the drama still being there - in a new country, on a new team, not even a year ago.
Coaches
Terry Francona had an interesting relationship with Trevor Bauer. Things came to a head, at least publicly, after a game in which Bauer angrily threw a ball over the center field wall after getting torched (giving up 8 runs in 4 1/3 innings). After the game, Bauer addressed his team and others and apologized. Good on him, but there is more under the covers.
Francona, the class act that he is, downplayed what happened. But there were so many rumblings from sportscaster, teammates, fans talking about how fed up with Bauer Francona was, that it should speak bigger volumes than what was immediately obvious.
Will He Still Be Elite?
Sports has routinely had to grapple with drama vs. performance. Personally, when the drama wades into things like assault, it should be a no brainer to peace out. But I’d argue when that drama is online harassment, uncontrolled anger, throwing teammates under the bus in the press, and bringing a circus with you wherever you go, it should also be a no brainer.
But let’s talk performance for a second. Trevor Bauer is 33 years old. He last pitched in the majors in 2021. He’s spent the last 2 years in Japan and Mexico compiling a 2.34 ERA, 10.2 SO/9, 2.0 BB/9, and a 1.095 WHIP through 203 IP. Those numbers are extremely good. Even better in the Mexican league this year (albeit only 47 IP): 1.53 ERA, 0.979 WHIP, 13.4 SO/9, and a 2.1 BB/9.
The question naturally becomes: just how good is the Mexican League? Most people tend to think it’s around AAA quality. There are ex-major leaguers playing, it’s ultra-competitive, and there are a ton of teams (20).
There’s no doubt that Trevor Bauer has the best numbers when it comes to starters in the Mexican League. But there are quite a few others right on his heels. I’m only going to include guys who have 5 or more starts this year:
Pablo Tellez (24 y/o): 2.06 ERA, 1.257 WHIP, 8.5 SO/9, 2.6 BB/9
Nick Struck (34): 2.26 ERA, 1.219 WHIP, 6.3 SO/9, 2.8 BB/9
Tyler Viza (29): 2.33 ERA, 1.241 WHIP, 8 SO/9, 2.0 BB/9
Angel Sanchez (34): 2.35 ERA, 0.965 WHIP, 6.8 SO/9, 1.6 BB/9
David Reyes (34): 2.37 ERA, 1.175 WHIP, 6.6 SO/9, 1.3 BB/9
Stephen Tarpley (31): 2.51 ERA, 0.877 WHIP, 7.5 SO/9, 3.1 BB/9
Cesar Valdez (39): 2.57 ERA, 1.032 WHIP, 6.4 SO/9, 1.1 BB/9
The list can go on. There are 10 other starters with ERA under 3 (including the guys above). Even our old friend Radhames Liz (40 y/o) has a 2.67 ERA and SO/9 approaching 10.
Now, does this mean that Trevor Bauer can’t be an excellent starter in the majors? No, not at all. If anything, I think his past experience, work ethic, and performance means he could still be a very good starter.
But is the juice worth the squeeze?
For the Orioles, No. For Everybody Else, No As Well
So far this year, the O’s have had a myriad of injuries to their starters. John Means and Tyler Wells are out with arm injuries and will require surgery. Kyle Bradish missed time while he rehabbed from an elbow strain. Dean Kremer has a triceps strain. But even still, they’ve somehow been able to put together a 3.06 ERA, 1.142 WHIP, and are averaging nearly 6 IP/game with a rotation consisting of Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish, Cole Irvin, and Albert Suarez. Cade Povich will be making his major league debut while Bradish gets some extra time today.
Could Bauer put up better numbers than the O’s rotation? Maybe some of the back of the rotation guys. But the difference wouldn’t appear to be too dramatic, especially since the Orioles could also just trade for somebody that wouldn’t bring just baggage - but an entire closet full of baggage.
This is probably the case for any of the other contending teams that would want him in their rotation. And that’s before any of the drama that would come with it.
For an Orioles club devoid of drama and overwhelmingly young and upbeat, why on Earth would you want to upset that? To me, it’s an easy no to Trevor Bauer.
Move on.