Trevor Bauer vs. Rob Manfred, a Timeline
Last night, Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer went after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Twitter after the MLB-affiliated account “Cut4” posted this image of Seattle Mariner Dee Gordon’s cleats:
Animal style. pic.twitter.com/pYtGufl52X
— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 7, 2020
The fun-loving Bauer called out the MLB not because he hates good fast food, but due to the apparent hypocrisy displayed by the MLB in their handling of this situation versus earlier in the year when Bauer attempted to wear cleats featuring the hashtag #FREEJOEKELLY. He mentioned that in the MLB’s rule book, cleats with commercial logos (such as In-N-Out’s) are prohibited:
violate the policy. Meanwhile…a player wears cleats that DIRECTLY VIOLATE YOUR OWN POLICY and one of your official accounts promotes it?! In case you need a reminder, “designs that contain corporate or commercial logos […]are prohibited”…here’s your words on the matter 👇🏻👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/BdVhiCDFDm
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) September 8, 2020
This isn’t the first time Bauer has called out the MLB and Rob Manfred. So, I thought we could take a little stroll down memory lane and the different times the two have been at odds just in the last year.
December 14, 2019
Not too much to say here, but Bauer said on Twitter he has “so many things to say” after the MiLB announced they would be reducing the number of affiliated teams to 120. While he didn’t say anything, it seemed pretty clear he was upset with the decision, especially after a follow up tweet where he said “At least Rob Manfred is trying to ruin baseball at all levels.”
February 11th, 2020
In February, Bauer ripped Manfred and the MLB for two main reasons: leaked rule changes and the way the league markets its players. In this video, Bauer specifically berates Manfred for proposing an elongated playoff schedule where the best team “gets 6 day, 7 day layoff” and various other rules to cut the game time down to under three hours. Further, Bauer counters that the most pressing issue for the MLB is not the game or schedule, but how they decide to market their players. He covers a lot in just about 7 minutes, so I’d encourage you to watch the video yourself.
March 3rd, 2020
Later, after Rob Manfred opened up his office to players who were concerned about the Houston Astros cheating scandal, Bauer confirmed meeting with the commissioner and actually had some good things to say about him, stating on Twitter, “We had a very productive meeting about a wide range of topics.”
June 15th, 2020
Back in June, we got this looooooooong thread after Manfred went from saying “Baseball will be 100% back this year” to “unsure if there will be a season” in the span of just a few days:
isn’t it Rob? Because then you’d have to explain why you’re only going to impose 50 games when we could easily play 70+ right now. The tactic is to bluff with “no season” again and delay another 2-3 weeks until you clear the risk of “not negotiating in good faith by trying to
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2020
obvious to everyone what you were trying to do. And no one would think that was a “representative season” so you’d risk not getting your precious playoff money. Nope, can’t have that. So gotta make it more than that. But not too many…you’ve gone as high as about 55 games full
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2020
Be at least 4 off days in there…so that’s 64 days. Plus about 20 for spring training…84 days. Sept 27-84 days is July 5. Plus about a week to get players to spring training. So tack on another 7, that takes us to June 28. As I have it figured, that’s your deadline. But today
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2020
You’re holding a losing hand. Unfortunately, it’s a losing hand for everyone involved, not just you. There’s some saying out there about not killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Check it out on the ole google machine. It’s worth knowing.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2020
And remember, this is just in the last year. Bauer obviously has a lot of thoughts on the MLB commissioner, and I’m sure there’s much more we’ll get in the coming years, especially is Manfred keeps going down the road he’s on. Let’s hope we get a new commissioner soon.
– Pat Shuman (@PShu1996 on Twitter)