Trevor Bauer

I came across a Twitter discussion about the risk/reward prospects for signing Trevor Bauer. On the one hand, Bauer, a potential ace, would sign for the league minimum and play for an incentive-laden win-win contract, but on the other there would almost certainly be some backlash toward the GM and front office that did so.

The way they were talking about it was the way they would talk about signing any player who had done something terrible — yes, he could help the team, but would it be enough to offset the negative publicity?

The only problem in this case is that Bauer did not, as far as we know, do anything terrible. He did something stupid — engage in rough sex with someone who is quite likely a sociopath — but the allegations of abuse she made with the help of corrupt clout-seekers posing as journalists — fell apart under scrutinty, Bauer was never charged with a crime and his accuser dropped her civil suit against him.

Now that this information is publicly known, why are people talking about the risk of backlash should a GM offer Bauer a minimum guaranteed contract?

It reminds me of this recently-viral clip between a teacher and student talking about the author J.K. Rowling:

In the clip a student asks the teacher if he still likes her work despite her “bigoted opinions.” The teacher asks him to define “bigoted opinions” and give examples, and the student finds some tweets that he himself does not find bigoted but is “going with what other people have said.” Eventually, the student comes to realize the only real reason he thought she was a bigot was that other people were saying so, and now that he’s looked into it, he “feels like an idiot.”

Is this not what’s going on in the Bauer discussion? Bauer was suspended by the Dodgers and MLB in a rush to judgment that didn’t withstand scrutiny, and now people are acting as though he really is guilty of something of which he is plainly not based on “what other people have said.”

One might still argue, well, even if he’s not guilty of the underlying crime, the backlash could nonetheless be real, just based on what some people think. Put differently, a GM might, in this view, not sign a player, who has already been unjustly suspended during his prime years, who could help the team win, who comes at an incredible discount with virtually no financial risk because of what people who have not looked into the matter think. That this is being seriously entertained — and it must be because to date no team has signed him — is cowardice bordering on malpractice.

Accordingly, I’m moving Bauer up my board as I have to think at least one organization will show some balls and give him a shot.