The last we looked in on the ugly and strange tale of ace MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer was in 2023, in two epic posts, “The Amazing Trevor Bauer Ethics Train Wreck: It Has Everything: #MeToo, Kinky Sex, Ethics Zugzwang, Predatory Women, ‘Guilty Until Proven Innocent,’ “The Asshole’s Handicap,” Legal Ethics And Baseball! [Part I: The Story]”and “The Amazing Trevor Bauer Ethics Train Wreck, Part 2: Villains, Victims, Heroes And Confusion.” Here’s the short version: In 2021, Bauer was an ace pitcher with a rich contract with the Dodgers until a former sex partner of his tried to shake him down for cash by threatening to claim sexual assault and domestic abuse. Baseball is tough on domestic abusers, and it suspended Bauer while it investigated her (calculated) accusation. Bauer refused to capitulate to the woman, and insisted—still insists—that the rough sex was consensual. Law enforcement concluded that he was likely the victim here, but the Dodgers no longer wanted him as damaged goods, and no other team has hired him. Bauer hasn’t pitched in the U.S. since his suspension was lifted.
The pitcher has offered to play for any team at the MLB minimum, but is, for the second time, now playing professional ball in Japan. My sources with the Red Sox tell me that he has, essentially, been blackballed by all 30 teams as persona non grata. Yes, Bauer was considered a clubhouse problem before his rough sex reputation, but nobody doubts that, jerk though he may be, teams would be lining up to pay him over 20 million bucks a year if the predatory sex partner hadn’t marked him as kinky.
Just this week, Bauer’s who is active on social media, mocked the New York Yankees for preferring to lose with its injury-ravaged pitching staff than to sign him, as he has said he would play in New York for free. (That’s not allowed, incidentally) He also denies that he would be a distraction, tweeting, “There won’t be any horrible media. It’ll be two days of 50/50 mix and then everyone will forget about it and 8 months or so later. The team will be in the playoffs contending for a World Series.”
It’s too bad for Bauer that he isn’t a star NFL quarterback or high scoring NBA player. Those professional sports leagues, unlike baseball, routinely sign felons, deadbeat dads and other morally repugnant athletes, and their fans seemingly don’t care. Baseball takes its traditional role as the National Pastime seriously: it is serious about putting paid heroes on the field who are worthy of the word. Trevor Bauer has, as far as anyone can determine, done nothing illegal; still, Major League Baseball does not want to be associated with someone who hurts women for fun, even if his sex partners agree to it.
Well, good. I understand why Trevor Bauer feels mistreated: no doubt there are other players whose activities behind closed doors would make them poor candidates for a Wheaties Box, but they have been lucky. Nonetheless, I’m glad baseball makes an effort to avoid placing unsavory non-criminals on a proverbial pedestal. Winning isn’t everything after all. Values and character still matter.
In some places, anyway.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack,
I have been giving this a lot of thought. I appreciate this piece very much, though I respectfully disagree with the conclusion. Trevor Bauer’s sexual proclivities – and I’ll agree they were (and maybe still are) “unsavory” at best – only came to light because a woman decided to extort money from him, and then publicly (and falsely) accused him of a crime.
Bauer, though he played rough with a woman during sex because she wanted him to, committed no crime. It was the decision of MLB and the team owners to prevent him from playing during the investigation, which is understandable given the predatory nature of the media and (at that time) the Me-Too movement – though it raises questions in my mind of MLB’s adherence to the concept of “innocent until proven guilty.”
But Trevor has been exonerated. He is not guilty and as we have discovered, he never was. In fact, he was set up. And who knows?…maybe his sexual release is now accomplished in ways more “reformed” and less shocking to mainstream baseball fans.
This might smack as a “whataboutism” rationalization, but Justice Kavanaugh was accused of similar crimes, and when no incriminating evidence of the crime was forthcoming, he was given a position of great importance. Maybe the Golden Rule is a better plumb line. If a baseball owner had been accused of a crime and forced to give up team control and pay during the investigation, would he/she not feel deserving of re-taking the helm when the conclusion of the matter left that person completely innocent of the charges? Isn’t Bauer worthy of similar consideration?
I don’t think letting Trevor play again is necessarily an act by MLB of putting him on a pedestal. It’s the fans that ultimately do that. It’s more a restoration to his prior position – one we now know he shouldn’t have lost because a woman set out to destroy him – with fully awareness of what happened, but with the opportunity to get it right going forward.
I hope others will chime in and offer their perspectives.
I’m with you, Joel. Something fishy is going on with Bauer and always have been. As I recall, Bauer was originally an Arizona Diamondbacks property. They ran him off or traded him for next to nothing. His upside was unlimited at the time. But the organization slimed him as not conforming to traditional MLB pitcher preparation protocols. In other words, he wanted to prepare the way he felt was best for him. This enraged “The Baseball Men” in the organization and could not be tolerated. Adios sure-bet multiple Cy Young Award winner. “And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. We wish you well.” If being a jerk or peculiar was a bar to playing in the Bigs, think of how many suddenly empty walls there’s be in Cooperstown. Ty Cobb, anyone? For me, this case is analogous to Curt Schilling’s treatment by all The Baseball Men, including therein the writers. There’s a serious, debilitating Old Fart strain in baseball. Thus spake OB.