Fuck Trevor Bauer
Note: Below there are many general and specific references to sexual assault which could be triggering for some readers. Find resources about sexual assault here: https://www.rainn.org/resources
Trevor Andrew Bauer is unemployed in the USA, and I’m glad.
I won’t list his pitching accolades. A typical column or report might do that right now, next to his last name (on second reference), separated by cutesy little commas as per AP Style. But I won’t. He doesn’t deserve it, and as far as I’m concerned, his accomplishments are meaningless.
This column is the last thing I will say about Trevor Bauer. He clogs my timeline and, other than watching him get shelled by a fucking sports blogger, I hate it. Some people in my little corner of Twitter have chosen to interact directly with his defenders. I can’t do that, because Bauer supporters won’t change. He’s a terrible person and by proxy so are his defenders. To his defenders, who likely haven’t made it this far before blowing their goddamn top, I understand humans contain multitudes. I just don’t want to take my precious hours on Earth to learn yours. Cheers, assholes.
Below are a few talking points for those who are either unfamiliar with the specifics of Bauer’s record, or who want to share this because you’re tired of typing the same shit ad nauseam.
But, in case you’re a TL;DR kind of person, the basics are: Trevor Bauer has been accused multiple times of violent sexual assault and has not been found “not guilty” in a court of law, he’s a pariah in the clubhouse, and he’s not actually that good at baseball anymore.
Let’s get to it.
Bauer has multiple accusers.
While his defenders love to point out that one of his accusers dropped her case against Bauer last fall, he has actually been accused of assault by three other women, and as of this writing, has not been cleared of any wrongdoing in a court of law.
In relation to the first accuser, Lindsey Hill, it is paramount to remember two things.
First, she did drop her lawsuit, but she never revoked her claims of assault. She maintains he assaulted her. According to The Athletic, Hill received $300,000 from insurance claims (never once taking money from Bauer) and decided this was enough of a resolution. Bauer, obviously, still asserts his own innocence.
‘The settlement ends Bauer’s lawsuit that accused Hill of defamation, as well as her counterclaim that accused Bauer of sexual battery. Neither Bauer nor Hill is paying to settle the case, their lawyers said, and both continue to deny the other’s claims.
“Based on that payment, Lindsey agreed to settle the lawsuit,” Hill’s attorney Bryan Freedman said. “Now that the lawsuit is over, Lindsey looks forward to helping others.”’ (Per The Athletic)
Second, Bauer has had, as of this writing, four separate accusers, including Hill. Publicly known details contain one shocking similarity between the four accusations — Bauer and the women started the relationships consensually, but then he allegedly became abusive during sexual encounters.
I feel it is important to include some graphic details below, for two reasons. One, many of Bauer’s defenders seem to casually mention he was accused of “assault”, which makes me believe they don’t know the details or don’t care. It’s important to know how shitty this dude is. Two, these details were already made public by many publications, so I feel it is OK to continue sharing them. That said, skip the next small paragraph if you wish, and just know that he is accused of really vile stuff.
The allegations against Bauer include the following: holding a knife to a woman’s throat during sex, choking a woman unconscious during sex, punching a woman in the head, and forcing anal sex on a woman while she was passed out.
I won’t get into further details, because it sucks to read and sucks to write about. It is absolutely worth noting that the accusations of violence off the field dovetail all too well with his known demeanor as an angry guy in the clubhouse and on the field. I will detail this later.
A note to his defenders: If you are only citing Bauer’s own words in his defense, you’re doing it wrong. You are not very smart. You are a shill for some guy you’ve never met.
For those concerned about reading gruesome details, there are no more below.
We must return to the importance of Hill’s case against Bauer because his defenders constantly cite it as proof of his innocence. She dropped the case! She’s a liar! She wanted money!
Within the realm of sexual assault studies, this is a concept called the “perfect victim.” Defenders of the alleged assailant will turn the attack back on the accuser — they’re liars, greedy for money or fame. They will point out that it took years for the accuser to come forward, or that they are otherwise flawed of character, thus defusing their claims.
“The roots of this are deep,” writes Keir Starmer of The Guardian. “Over the years, police, prosecutors and courts had developed crude tests of victim credibility, such as whether a victim promptly reported to the police what had happened to them, was able to give a coherent and chronological account of events and whether they had led a “blameless” life in the sense of not engaging in the abuse of drink, drugs and criminal activity themselves.”
This can lead to a “Goldilocks dilemma,” or needing to be “just right” as a survivor, per Elle.
‘The idea of ‘perfect’ can vary greatly, from how the victim presents themselves in court to how they choose to report the incident. Victims who instinctively know to leave DNA at the crime scene might be heralded as genius, while those who default to freeze mode might be asked why they didn’t fight back hard enough …
Despite what we may think on a human level, the eyes of the law often require [the victim] to have lived a blameless life in order to be believed and validated in their assault experience.’
(The Elle column further shines a light on how cis-white women are believed more often than minorities, people of color, the elderly, or those with cognitive disabilities.)
In short — victims are blamed and alleged assailants like Bauer, or the public, can run with the narrative.
Furthermore, a staggering percentage of sexual assaults are unreported. Out of 1,000 sexual assaults, only 310 are reported to police. Fifty of those lead to an arrest. Twenty eight of those lead to felony convictions. Only 25 perpetrators, or 2.5%, will end up incarcerated. (These numbers are per RAINN, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network.)
Feminist author Jessica Valenti worded it best in her 2009 book The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women.
“Should we treat women as independent agents, responsible for themselves? Of course we should,” she wrote.
“But being responsible has nothing to do with being raped. Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.”
Nobody wants to work with Trevor Bauer.
Here’s where I will drop the “allegedly” because these aren’t crimes, but they will continue to showcase what a fucking asshole this guy is and how shallow his defenders are.
Let’s be clear — it’s important to discuss some of Bauer's career as a player because his proponents often use his sports achievements as a shield, to avoid defending his character. He’s good at baseball, so his behavior off the field shouldn’t matter!
Unfortunately for them, Bauer has long been seen as a toxic teammate and has recently been mediocre at baseball. Defending him as a player is a guise. It’s an easy way to defend him as a person without saying you support an (alleged) abuser.
It is critical to point out that Bauer has been able to play in the MLB since 2023. He is no longer barred from playing. After serving a 194-day suspension, the longest ever handed down by the MLB per the league’s Joint Domestic Violence Policy, an independent arbiter reinstated Bauer last year. The MLB is not blackballing him. The truth is no one wants him. Thirty teams have all independently decided he is bad.
Here are some examples of Bauer’s character negatively impacting his chances at playing for a professional team in the US.
There is one specific incident involving then-Guardians manager Terry “Tito” Francona, in which Tito took Trevor and Trevor’s father to dinner to discuss his son’s troublesome clubhouse demeanor. Bauer had recently, in a clear fit of rage, whipped a ball into the stands after being removed from a game for poor performance.
“Trevor was driving him [Tito] insane,” according to Andre Knott, a Cleveland sports reporter, on an August 2019 episode of The A to Z Podcast. (The Bauer coverage begins at the 16:50 mark.)
When asked how dinner went, Andre said Tito responded in frustration.
“He goes ‘Shit. You ever hear the story about the apple not falling far from the tree? Well, his dad’s the fucking tree.’”
At the time, Bauer had no public assault accusations against him, but Andre reveals a telling detail about Bauer’s character. Despite his successes on the mound, he had a temper and at times couldn’t “express his emotions in the correct way,” Andre said on the podcast episode, which was released soon after the Guardians traded Bauer to the Cincinnati Reds in 2019.
Andre specifically pointed out Bauer’s penchant for rage after a difficult game.
“I’m not going to sit here and make Trevor out to be bad for breaking shit all the time. Guys break stuff,” Andre continued. “But it gets to a point where enough is enough. Sometimes you have to weigh out, are all the other things worth dealing with, worth us loving you every fifth day on the mound?”
Andre also reported that Bauer would often appear selfish to his teammates. He would come to games early to meet with fans, normally a kind gesture from star players, but often would bring along with his own video equipment to record himself. He wasn’t there to truly be present with teammates or the fans, and it cultivated a toxic clubhouse response to his antics, Andre said.
“The guys that played with him, the guys that coached him, managed him. … It came off that it was all about Trevor,” Andre said. “Have you ever seen any other player do that? Have you ever thought about what the rest of the clubhouse feels when you do something like that?”
“I don’t care who you are in this business,” co-host Zac Jackson responded. “You can only do so many things that make everybody roll their eyes before they find something else for you to do. And that’s what he did.”
If you’ve followed Bauer on social media in recent months, you’ll see this trend continue. Bauer has posted numerous times flashy videos of himself playing ball, or responding to the sexual assault allegations. It’s still all about him, and his defenders eat it up.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Bauer’s defenders like to say he was very good when he played in Japan last year, as if it rectifies his actions off the field. Again, the argument seems to be: We can tolerate his actions off the field because he performs on the field. After all, it’s professional sports, and it’s all about winning.
In actuality, Bauer was a decent player last year, but not great. So now you’re openly supporting a man accused of violent assault who also isn’t good at the one thing you think he’s good at. Solid argument, losers.
Of the 16 pitchers in the Japan Pacific League in 2023 who pitched more than 85 innings, Bauer ranked dead last in Walks and Hits Per Inning Pitched (WHIP). When you look at pitchers with more than 30 innings pitched, his WHIP ranked 31st. Of pitchers with more than 85 innings pitched, he ranked 5th in Earned Run Average (ERA). In the Japan Central League, he would have ranked 11th in WHIP and 12th in ERA (among pitchers with more than 85 IP).
In what can only be seen as filthy, uncut desperation, Bauer recently posted a video of himself giving up hits to a Barstool Sports blogger. It’s incredibly funny. I won’t post it here. I can only say he goes into a fit about how one of those hits wasn’t actually a hit. He also recently pitched 3 decent innings against LA Dodgers minor leaguers for a pay-to-play team out of Japan. He PAID A TEAM to play against minor leaguers. He also tagged the Arizona Diamondbacks social media team in a tweet showing video of him throwing a bullpen session. It’s truly embarrassing shit.
In summation — Bauer is an angry person who sucks to work with and also is just OK on the mound against Japanese hitters and sports bloggers. If you defend his actions off the field because he makes up for it on the field, he actually doesn’t. So now you’re just defending a rage-filled, bad person.
When discussing bauer, It doesn’t matter who else has been accused of assault in the MLB.
Finally, Bauer defenders love to point out that other players have also been accused of domestic assault but were given more lenient sentences than Bauer and haven’t been blackballed as he has. I’m here to remind you that it doesn’t matter.
This is a logical fallacy called “whataboutism.” When flailing in a debate, some will fallback on a tried and stupid argument: “Well, what about this?”
Let me give you an example.:
Out to dinner, I tell someone I don’t enjoy chicken.
“Well, what does that mean, you don’t like steak? What about steak?”
No, I simply don’t enjoy chicken. I don’t see how the two things are related.
“Well, it’s pretty clear to me you have a bias against chicken, and it’s quite telling that you are silent about steak, another great protein option.”
Do we want to have a debate about steak or are we still talking about chicken?
“I am right, and you are wrong. Steak is good. What is chicken?”
OK?
(In this example, Trevor Bauer is the chicken, and Aroldis Chapman is the steak.)
The victims in those other cases absolutely matter, and the MLB should take a hard look at how they apply their domestic violence rules and dole out punishment. I would tell you to reach out to the commissioner's office, but he hates baseball and wouldn’t care.
Suffice to say, I think Bauer's lengthy suspension was valid, and that punishments for other players’ allegations of violent crimes have historically been paltry in comparison. But none of that really matters when specifically discussing what a shitbird Bauer is.
These are the absolute final words I will say about Trevor Bauer.
He has been accused by multiple women of violent sexual assault. Arguing that he was declared “innocent” by a court of law is false. No he wasn’t, and if you argue that, you are a liar. (Also, point of order, courts do not declare people “innocent.” They declare them “not guilty.” No court of law has declared Bauer guilty or not guilty.)
He is a pariah in the clubhouse. Former managers and teammates have said his general demeanor is not worth having him on the team.
He’s just OK at baseball. There are other free agents right now that are better than him. There are younger guys who deserve a shot. Defending him as a player is done in bad faith.
Why does all this matter? For one, it silences victims, thus repeating the cycle of victims being too afraid to come forward.
And secondly, because kids watch baseball. Children do not have the same reasoning skills as most adults (Bauer defenders excluded). They see a guy on the mound, and that guy might as well be God Himself. They buy God’s jersey, and wear it to school. Other kids see it and decide God is a pretty cool guy, despite the fact that he gave up two hits to a Barstool Sports blogger.
It’s important to set standards. It’s important to elevate good people and denounce bad people. If you don’t understand this, then you’re one of the bad people. I can only hope you read this far, and a small part of your brain decided that I’m right.
