Trevor Bauer is a Guy the MLB Should Embrace

If you missed it yesterday, Cleveland Indians starter Trevor Bauer lost his mind a little bit. The pitcher decided that chucking the baseball over the center field fence was the best way to react to Terry Francona coming to pull him from the game. If you watch the clip, Bauer apologizes almost immediately to an irate Francona, so it appears it was just an emotional outburst by the 28-year-old starter. That does not make it right, but what it does do is provide the MLB an opportunity to market itself.Ever since becoming the all-star pitcher he is, Trevor Bauer has made headlines as a strange, quirky guy that injures himself flying a drone. The MLB should embrace that.

Bauer is a lightning rod and for a league that is trying to attract the younger generation, they need to put Bauer and his antics on display. People need to know who Trevor Bauer is rather than, “the baseball player that threw the ball over the fence the other day”. Instead of trying to push an issue like this to the side, Major League Baseball should push it to the forefront. The only issue is the fact that it would create a kind of political discussion regarding sportsmanship (similar to the topic of bat-flipping) but baseball and its fans need to get over that. Let players play and express themselves; it’s entertaining.

But regardless, Bauer should be a guy that baseball focuses on. He has a personality! Most major leaguers walk around like robots and then you look at the NBA where guys express themselves day after day. It pulls the fans in and helps them either relate, hate, or love a player. That gets fans more intrigued in the game, something that baseball desperately needs.

-Jarrod Ribaudo (@Jribs53)