A day after Trevor Bauer had an epic temper tantrum, the Indians are reported to be “evaluating” the possibility of trading him.
On the baseball merits Cleveland would likely never do this in the normal course as they are in Wild Card position and are breathing down the necks of the Twins for first place in the AL Central. But yesterday’s little tantrum and his long rumored reputation as being difficult to work with may have the Indians thinking that trading him would be a case of addition by subtraction.
The problem is that the team which has most commonly been said to have an interest in Bauer is the Yankees, and they are obviously a potential playoff competitor of the Indians. I’m guessing Cleveland doesn’t want to face him a couple of months from now. I saw one report that the Astros are a possibility but that seems laughable to me as there is longstanding bad blood between Bauer and Astros starter Gerrit Cole which, I’ve heard through the grapevine, is shared by Cole’s teammates, which would make Bauer unwelcome in that clubhouse.
All of which is to say that it seems like a Bauer trade is rather unlikely now. To the extent we’re hearing noise about it, I suspect, is frustration on the part of the Indians and, perhaps, it’s all a means of sending Bauer a message to cut the crap.
