Trevor Bauer doesn’t tend to hold back his thoughts or feelings on things. When he has something to say, he’s been known to say it – both for good and for bad. He’s had some thoughts about the Houston Astros before, noting how their pitchers all seemed to get some extra spin on their pitches once they arrived in Houston. At first it seemed a bit more nefarious than it actually was.
This week, though, has seen the Cincinnati Reds pitcher really lay into the Houston Astros, and earlier in the week, Major League Baseball and Rob Manfred, too. Let’s start with some of the stuff that Bauer had to say about Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball. In a video he recorded with Momentum, one that’s gotten over 160,000 views as I’m writing this, Bauer didn’t hold back.
“I’m really upset about this new, ridiculous playoff policy that Rob Manfred has suggested, or proposed, or leaked – I don’t even know how it got on the internet. I don’t know why it would even get on the internet – it’s that ridiculous. Just reading through it without even thinking about it for a second, they’re just wrong! Like, who put this out without thining of the fact that the best team in the league is going to get a 6-day layoff, 7-day layoff?”
Bauer continued, “All while we sort out this whole 3-games here, the wild card, we’re going to pick our opponent, and we’re going to do this reality tv stuff. Meanwhile the best team in baseball is sitting and waiting for this crap to transpire. God forbid someone’s ace pitches four days before the end of the regular season, and then he has to ten days between starts. This isn’t football where you can heal up and that helps. Being on a routine is so important in baseball. We play for six months and now you’re going to say at the most critical time of the year that we’re going to get 10 days off maybe, or the six days between games and who knows how the pitching rotation lines up and all of this different stuff. And that’s supposed to be a benefit? That’s supposed to be the best team in baseball that gets this benefit?”
Things got more interesting from there. Bauer spoke about how in one of the largest markets in baseball, half of the fans in the city of Los Angeles literally don’t have access to the games on television, for YEARS now, because of a contract dispute between the cable companies and the station that owns the rights to the games. He talked about how bad baseball is overall at promoting the game through social media because of their greed to try and get every single penny out of the product. Watch the video.
Trevor Bauer on the Houston Astros
As noted above, Trevor Bauer hasn’t exactly been shy about expressing his opinion. When the Houston Astros penalties came out, many within the game weren’t exactly thrilled with the punishments levied. No players faced any ramifications, the owner seemed to get off light, the organization seemed to get off light – and it really seemed that only the guys who were managers in 2019 that were connected to the stealing signs scandal were facing real punishments.
On Wednesday, Bauer penned a piece for The Players Tribune titled “I Wish I’d Been Wrong”, and within he addresses the Houston Astros and Major League Baseball again. And again, he wasn’t happy about what he was seeing.
Personally I think that what’s going on in baseball now is up there with the Black Sox scandal, and that it will be talked about forever — more so than steroids. Like the steroid era, you can say what you want about it, but steroids weren’t really illegal at the time. The sign-stealing that was going on in Houston, though, was blatantly illegal. And with the rules that were implemented last year and the year before — that, by the way, were then still broken — it was very clear.
That was only the beginning from Bauer. With spring training officially underway now, the Reds starter was asked why it is important to speak out in front of the media in Goodyear, and he didn’t hold back, reportedly talking for the next ten minutes before the next question was asked.
If you want to get the full breakdown, I’d suggest starting over at The Athletic, where C. Trent Rosecrans typed out nearly every single one of the 1500 words that Trevor Bauer gave in response to the question. Family friendly warning – the answers aren’t always so family friendly – by my count, Bauer used one of the banned words 27 times within his response. He did not hold back on the players, the owner of the Astros, Major League Baseball – none of it. On how the cheating was more than just wins and losses on the field Bauer had this to say:
Whit Merrifield was not an All-Star because José Altuve was. Aaron Judge did not win the MVP because José Altuve did and things like this. So now Whit Merrifield, when he goes to sign his long-term extension, doesn’t have “All-Star” next to his name. “All-Star” probably makes him a lot more valuable in arbitration, which perhaps makes him not sign that deal or maybe sign the deal for that many more million dollars. Aaron Judge doesn’t have “MVP” next to his name. What is he worth in his first year of arbitration? That’s millions of dollars. The trajectory of the career, too. It’s not the first time where it’s a million or two, but then the next year it’s two or three and the next year after that, it’s four or five.
If you don’t have a subscription to The Athletic, then you can check out Bobby Nightengale’s article at the Cincinnati Enquirer. It isn’t quite as complete as the full transcipt at The Athletic, but it’s very thorough in it’s own right and covers nearly everything.
Photo of Trevor Bauer by Erik Drost. Photo has been edited. License can be found here.