Reese Kaplan -- No Clubhouse Cancer Should Be on Your Team

As much as the Mets teamwide offensive output didn't click during this past dreadful season, if you took a poll of fans and media types covering the Mets the first problem they would cite well ahead of scoring runs would be preventing them from scoring by their own pitching staff.  It's well known that going into 2024 the club only has two consistent and capable starters with locks on positions in the rotation, so finding additional starting pitching definitely should be at the top of David Stearns' to do list between now and opening day.

Suppose I found for you a seemingly capable front line starting pitcher whose career numbers included an 83-69 winning record, a respectable if unspectacular 3.79 lifelong ERA and a decent but not quite 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.  It would seem like you might be on point to put this gentleman into your list of potential solutions for the three vacancies in the Mets rotation.  

However, digging a little deeper and all of the sudden those numbers get some off-the-field taint to make you wonder if perhaps you're barking up the wrong tree.  Wouldn't it be a bit odd to find that in a career for a gentleman of just 32 years of age already to have played for 5 teams.  That's seems as if a bit of unintentional wanderlust foisted upon him by his employers might bear a bit of investigating.  

The pitcher we're analyzing, of course, is one-time Cy Young Award winner, Trevor Bauer whose narrative recently has had a lot less to do with his arm and much more to do with his head (and other body parts).  You're all well aware of the allegations made against him for intimate encounters with a partner that went more aggressively than would be considered acceptable between romantic partners.  

To be fair to the man who was out of major league baseball for the past couple of seasons, a settlement was recently reached between the pitcher and his complaintnant.  Alleged victim Lindsey Hill brought the violence charges against Bauer which resulted in the MLB domestic violence penalty of 324 days being far in excess of anything every before imposed on another player.  

As the case unfolded, Bauer went after Ms. Hill claiming defamation.  Hill then chose to pursue a civil suit against Bauer for his actions.  What just happened according to sources is that Bauer did not pay the woman a dime, nor did she offer up anything for the claimed defamation.  She did get an insurance payment of $300,000 set up in a trust to be paid out to her.  As far as everyone associated with this incident, it is now over and Bauer is free to continue his major league baseball career.

In the interim, Bauer went over to Japan to pitch while prohibited from doing so in North America.  After sitting out off of 2022, he went a combined 11-4 with a 2.59 ERA in 2023 for Yokohama while exhibiting greater control and a WHIP of just over 1.100 for the entire season.  WIth as much publicity as Yoshinobu Yamamoto is getting as a prospective major leaguer for the upcoming 2024 season, the seven year older Bauer with extensive MLB pitching experience should be in many teams' consideration.

One club who won't want to touch Bauer is the recently embarrassed by Bauer Los Angeles Dodgers.  Long before his recent change in off-the-field status took place the teammates were resolute in not wanting Bauer to enter their clubhouse ever again.  That interesting reaction brings us back to the point about his frequent flier miles Bauer has earned in his career rather than ingratiating himself to fellow ballplayers and management personnel.

To go back in history a bit prior to the Los Angeles incident, Bauer was never exactly a choir boy.  During his Cy Young season in Cincinnati there was a highly publicized incident of him screaming like an overly emotional Little Leaguer when future Hall of Famer and teammate Joey Votto made an error which opened the door to a three run outburst by the competition.  At no point did Bauer acknowledge it was he who pitched ineffectively at that point but instead he needed to place the blame on someone else.  In fact, Votto was the recipient of Bauer wrath in consecutive starts.

Now Mets fans are accustomed to hyper competitive pitchers.  The past season and a half they employed one by the name of Max Scherzer.  Still, even at his worst Scherzer seemed far more inclined to blame the opposition and the umpires than his teammates who were there helping him try to win ballgames.  

Of course, back in the Cleveland days, there were other incidents suggesting his judgement was not always sound.  He chose to play amateur repairman on a drone prior to a postseason start and nearly sliced off his pinky when the propeller started spinning at full speed and acted like a knife.  Then there was another time he was so furious about his performance that when his manager arrived to take him out of the game after he allowed the 6th and 7th runs to score that he threw a ball from the mound over the center field fence which resulted in Terry Francona severing ties with him and having him traded away to Cincinnati.  

It's not just on the field where his behavior was unacceptable.  He was actively harassing a NY Daily News reporter over her coverage of him which included a long social media history of anti Semitic dialog and encouraging Holocaust like actions to inflict similar suffering on her.  Yes, as clubhouse cancers go, he's in a class of his own -- a very low class.

His ending salary with the Dodgers was at the $40 million per season level which means for Scherzer and Verlander money you're getting a pitcher with a career ERA not quite as good as current Met Jose Quintana's level.  Right now with all of the baggage he has, some club will give him a deeply discounted "make good" one year deal as he enters his age 33 season in quest of eventually reaching the century mark in career victories, but even at a 50% discount to $20 million, is he worth the public relations nightmare and affect he would have on his club's chances when the more repugnant aspects of his personality surface once again?

I think not.