HOUSTON, TX – OCTOBER 06: Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer (47) looks on after allowing Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman (2) a solo home-run in the seventh inning during the ALDS baseball game between the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Indians at Minute Maid Park, Saturday, October 6, 2018 at Houston. Houston Astros defeated Cleveland Indians 3-1. (Photo by Juan DeLeon/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Trevor Bauer used news of the Houston Astros stealing signs as a chance to reignite his social media feud with the club.
When news broke, in a report from The Athletic on Tuesday, that the Houston Astros used a camera to steal signs in 2017, Trevor Bauer wasn’t going to miss a chance to needle a franchise he has feuded with in the past.
The current Cincinnati Reds pitcher posted a video of himself, from his time with the Cleveland Indians, giving up a home run to Houston’s Alex Bregman. Mysterious music comes crashing in as Bauer delivers the offspeed pitch and then a 🤔 emoji emerges over Bauer’s face as he watches the ball leave the yard.
The original footage in the video Bauer shared is from the 2018 playoffs rather than the 2017 season when the alleged scheme took place, but the outspoken, interesting and often prickly pitcher has never missed a chance to take a jab at the Astros.
The Athletic’s report, based on comments from former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers and multiple unnamed Houston sources, claims that during the 2017 season the Astros used a camera in center field connected to a monitor in the tunnel behind the dugout to steal signs and then would bang on a trashcan to indicate an offspeed pitch coming.
In addition to Bauer’s jab, some of the most damning social media fallout helped illustrate the claims of another player who went the record with The Athletic.
In the story, Danny Farquhar, a former White Sox pitcher and current minor-league pitching coach, describes a 2017 appearance in Houston where he caught on to what seemed to be happening.
Multiple fans on social media found video of the at-bat in question and seemed to corroborate the report.
(Warning: Some colorful language included from the Yankees fan that made this breakdown)
Sign stealing is considered a widespread part of the game in some form or another, and the report made it clear that Houston believed other teams were doing similar things.
Bauer wasn’t the only current player speaking up, including those from teams that the Astros beat on their way to the 2017 World Series title.
Cleveland pitcher Mike Clevinger tweeted at Bregman, who has feuded with the Indians – specifically Bauer – in the past. Bregman and the Astros beat Clevinger and the Indians in the 2017 NLCS.
Aaron Judge – part of the Yankees team that lost to the Astros in the 2017 ALCS – tweeted “Wait… what….?” with a link to the story.
Yu Darvish asked why he was trending on twitter. It wasn’t because, in Darvish’s words “people finally realize I’m cool” but because Dodgers fans were thinking back to the 2017 World Series when Darvish struggled in both of his outings and some thought he must be tipping his pitches.
In response to the story, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, “We certainly did not know anything definitive at the time. But we had a player who was really good at picking up pitch-tipping-type things and he watched the Darvish outings and said, ‘You couldn’t sell out on something that Darvish was doing.’”
For his part, Darvish was still taking responsibility for his two losses in a number of tweets.
In addition, Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman called it “Awful for the game of baseball.”
It’s unclear where the fallout will go from here, with MLB saying, “After we review this new information we will determine any necessary next steps.”
Sign stealing is considered a widespread part of the game in some form or another, and the report made it clear that Houston believed other teams were doing similar things.
The Astros responded to the report with a statement that said, “Regarding the story posted by The Athletic earlier today, the Houston Astros organization has begun an investigation in cooperation with Major League Baseball. It would not be appropriate to comment further on this matter at this time.”
Houston may not think it’s appropriate to comment at this time, but the time to get a joke off is always right for Trevor Bauer.