It’s been a turbulent few days for Trevor Bauer. His start Sunday was perhaps his worst of the year, and ended with Bauer angrily chucking the ball all the way over the wall in center. For that he was chewed out by manager Terry Francona, and later fined by MLB. Before Francona could decide whether to hit Bauer with any additional punishment, Bauer was traded to the Reds. Francona did not sound especially beat up about it:
Bauer met with Indians manager Terry Francona for a final time. Francona said the meeting with Bauer was “pretty short” and that it brought him relief.
“Sometimes it’s emotional, and sometimes it’s not quite as emotional,” Francona said. “That’s just being honest.”
The bad ending in Cleveland apparently put Bauer in a rare, wistful, introspective state of mind. He showed up at an Indians game as a spectator; he shared a sappy four-minute farewell video to Cleveland and Indians fans; he talked about learning from his past and becoming “a better person” in Cincinnati. Having spent the past few days touring this aspect of the human condition, Bauer is ready to move on. From ESPN:
Bauer said he has been reminded this week that “I’m human.”
“It’s nice to feel that sometimes,” he said. “I spend so much time thinking and I don’t generally have, like, strong emotional reactions to very much. I definitely had some strong emotional reactions this past week. So it’s good to feel human. Obviously I don’t want to repeat that.”
It’s interesting to observe that Bauer doesn’t consider himself someone who has strong emotional reactions when he’s also the baseball guy who spent a couple of days harassing a stranger on Twitter over a throwaway tweet.