If Major League Baseball is exiling Trevor Bauer for supporting Donald Trump, then Michael Kay says teams will have a hard time building rosters.
As Bauer struggles to find MLB suitors, Congressman Eric Burlison (R-MO) recently sent commissioner Rob Manfred a letter alleging the pitcher’s support of Trump might be to blame. It’s been nearly four years since Bauer was on an MLB field, but according to the voice of the New York Yankees, his support of Trump likely has nothing to do with it.
“Trevor Bauer has made all these different excuses about why Major League teams aren’t signing him,” Kay said on his ESPN New York radio show this week. “The latest one was no one wants to sign him because he supports Donald Trump.
“And my eyes rolled into the back of my head when I heard that. Because if teams didn’t want players who supported Donald Trump – wait for it everybody. They’d have a hard time fielding a starting nine. The vast majority of athletes in Major League Baseball are conservative and very much in the corner of the president of the United States.”
Every time a prominent starting pitcher gets injured, portions of the team’s fanbase attempt to claim Bauer can be their savior. And with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole undergoing Tommy John surgery this week, New York sports radio has fielded some of those calls from fans.
By all accounts, Bauer will not be signed by the Yankees, and it has nothing to do with Trump support. Bauer was suspended for 324 games midway through the 2021 season due to sexual assault allegations. No charges were filed, with police citing a lack of evidence, but Manfred saw enough to hit Bauer with a historic suspension without pay for violating MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.
Bauer appealed the suspension, which was reduced to 194 games, allowing him to return in 2023, but no teams have expressed any public interest in the former Cy Young Award winner. Bauer has subsequently pitched in Japan and Mexico, where he has been successful, but it’s long been apparent that his services are not wanted in Major League Baseball.
The Yankees, and all teams, are likely to continue keeping their distance from Bauer because they don’t think it’s worth dealing with the backlash that would come with signing him, especially now that he’s nearly four years removed from pitching in an MLB game. But it in a sport filled with Trump supporters, it’s silly to think Trevor Bauer’s political allegiances are what’s keeping him out of the league.
