BOSTON, MA – MAY 16: Mike Trout #27 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim looks on during the first inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox on May 16, 2021 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
Mike Trout and Trevor Bauer may be opponents at the ballpark but they agree on thing: they want a fair playing field when it comes to MLB’s foreign substance issue.
Los Angeles baseball stars Mike Trout and Trevor Bauer compete for cross-town rivals, but off the field, they have taken the same stance on MLB saying it wants to enforce the rules against pitchers using foreign substances on the baseball.
Trout echoed Bauer when he told LA Times reporter Jack Harris he thinks the players just want a level playing field.
A career .305 hitter and three-time AL MVP, Trout can hit just about anything pitchers throw at him, no matter the spin rate.
Trout and Bauer on foreign substances: Players want level playing field
For several years, Bauer has been warning the league that pitchers have been doctoring baseballs. While batters are allowed to use substances to improve their grip on the bat, pitchers doing the same has long been considered illegal. Until recently, however, the rule was rarely enforced.
Bauer has come as close as anyone to admitting he’s one of the estimated 80 to 90 percent of MLB pitchers who use sticky substances to improve their grip on the ball and get a faster spin rate. Bauer himself has increased the spin rate on his fastball by over 400 rpm in the past two years. When the MLB put pitchers on notice last week about plans to have umpires begin randomly and repeatedly checking baseballs, Bauer was quick to applaud the move – and his spin rate took a dip just as quickly.
The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner can chalk it up to the humidity all he wants, but baseball fans aren’t falling for that. At the end of the day, we want the same thing Bauer and Trout do: a consistent, fair rule that’s enforced equally. Otherwise, the use of sticky substances may as well not be illegal in the first place.