Tomase: Why no team, including the Sox, should consider signing Bauer originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
It's hard to imagine anyone signing radioactive right-hander Trevor Bauer. For the Red Sox to even consider it is basically unfathomable.
Bauer the pitcher could help any team, given his age, arsenal, and track record. Bauer the person is a completely different story, and as much as America believes in second chances, some players simply don't deserve them.
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Bauer is one. Suspended for a record 324 games over multiple allegations of sexual assault, he was recently reinstated after having his punishment reduced to 192 games by an arbitrator. The Dodgers debated his future for two weeks before designating him for assignment on Friday.
They have until Thursday to trade him, which is unlikely, before releasing him and making him a free agent.
This includes the Red Sox, who could use rotation help, but not at the cost of their good name. The Dodgers found Bauer's three accusers credible, and their stories are stomach-churning. Bauer allegedly choked and punched women during sexual encounters, and then compounded matters by not only failing to exhibit remorse, but suing one of them for defamation despite admitting on a call recorded by detectives that he had hit her, according to the Washington Post.
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Bauer met with the Dodgers this week and released a statement alleging the team reneged on a plan to welcome him back, which strains credulity.
"While I am disappointed by the organization's decision today, I appreciate the wealth of support I've received from the Dodgers clubhouse," he wrote. "I wish the players all the best and look forward to competing elsewhere."
Why any team would welcome that distraction is mystifying, but talent talks. Since breaking out with the Indians during an All-Star 2018, Bauer is 36-28 with a 3.07 ERA and more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings.
He won the National League Cy Young Award with the Reds during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and then signed a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers, despite an extensive history of being not only a bad teammate, but frequently abusive on social media.
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Bauer's transgressions date back to his minor league days with the Diamondbacks, who made him the third overall pick in the 2011 draft out of UCLA. He frequently clashed with management before being traded to Cleveland, where he made headlines in 2016 by cutting his hand on a drone before a playoff start.
More importantly, he had already demonstrated a history of online bullying and harassment as the worst kind of "LOL debate me" troll. Particularly egregious was his treatment of a female Astros fan who simply tagged him as, "My new least favorite person in sports." Bauer responded by invoking her name in more than 80 tweets, at least one of which was deemed anti-trans, before she deleted her account and he issued a half-hearted apology.
It was behavior befitting a man who once told Sports Illustrated that his two skills are, "throwing baseballs and pissing people off."
If his boorish behavior could once be partially dismissed as iconoclasm, there's no defending him against the multiple charges of sexual violence, for which he has yet to express genuine remorse.
Any team welcoming that kind of player risks not just a fan revolt, but a clubhouse one, too. Some players just aren't worth redeeming, and signing Bauer would require such a thorough stomping of an organization's moral compass, it's not even worth considering.
