Reds starter Trevor Bauer has struggled in four starts with the Reds since the Indians dealt him on July 31. Entering Sunday, the right-hander allowed 16 runs (15 earned) on 23 hits and eight walks with 30 strikeouts in 23 innings. That’s an ugly 5.87 ERA.
Nevertheless, Bauer says he’s happier in Cincinnati than he was in Cleveland. Via FOX Sports Ohio, Bauer said, “It was very easy coming in. Everyone did a really good job being accommodating, making it easy for me to make the transition. The information is great here, the coaching staff is great here, and overall I’m a lot happier here than I was. Sometimes you don’t realize how unhappy you are in a situation until you’re out of it. Just kind of the day-to-day life. I miss some of my teammates and stuff, but overall I don’t really miss a whole lot about Cleveland.”
In his final start with the Indians, Bauer struggled immensely against the lowly Royals. As manager Terry Francona came to the mound to remove him from the game, Bauer angrily hurled the baseball from the mound all the way over the fence in center field. Francona was not happy about it. Bauer was fined a couple days later, then the Indians traded him the next day.
Bauer also caused the Indians headaches because of his social media presence. In January, Bauer spent days publicly harassing a woman -- a college senior named Nikki -- in front of his 134,000 followers (now 175,000). Nikki received so much harassment from Bauer’s supporters that she was forced to delete her account. She wrote, “Sorry I don’t like being told to kill my self for 4 days straight.” Bauer issued a non-apology afterwards, saying, “I have been made aware that some of the interactions related to a specific Twitter exchange may have had a negative impact. That was not my intention. I will wield the responsibility of my public platform more responsibly in the future.” The incident was not a good look for Bauer or for the Indians.
In February, Bauer publicly criticized the way the Indians handled his arbitration hearing. He said, “They spent the last 10 minutes of the case trying a character assassination. I learned that giving to charity is a bad thing. I learned that agreeing with someone on a podcast just for the sake of argument that I was worth $10.5 million, and should be the definitive answer why I’m not worth $13 [million].” No matter what industry, employees publicly bad-mouthing the companies they work for is not looked upon fondly by employers.
Bauer, by the way, was crushed by the Pirates on Sunday afternoon. He lasted only three innings, serving up eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts. His ERA as a Red is now up to 7.62.
