No MLB team should sign free-agent pitcher Trevor Bauer, especially just days after his release. But that hasn’t stopped the speculation, headlined by the Houston Astros.
Trevor Bauer was accused of violent sexual assault and eventually suspended nearly 200 games by MLB as a result. Bauer has since been reinstated, but parted ways with the Los Angeles Dodgers after the organization noted his lack of remorse in a recent meeting between the two sides.
There was no path back for Bauer and the Dodgers, but will he eventually sign with a new team? It’s tough to assume that would happen this offseason, as any team willing to sign Bauer would also be faced with a press relations disaster. Not to mention, it’s just not the right thing to do at the moment.
Bauer was linked to his former nemesis over the weekend, though — the Houston Astros.
Would the Houston Astros sign Trevor Bauer?
On the Talkin Baseball MLB podcast, former Minnesota Twins infielder Trevor Plouffe theorized that the Houston Astros could take some interest in Trevor Bauer, eventually. It’s important to note that Plouffe thinks this could happen sometime down the road:
“I’m thinking teams that want to compete for real,” Plouffe said. “I think there are going to be some teams who say, ‘We like the on-field performance enough.’”
Former MLB pitcher David Cone noted that Bauer is an elite pitcher when healthy, but also acknowledged the likely PR disaster.
“It’s probably a [public relations] nightmare for any team to try to approach this and touch it,” Cone said. “I mean, I don’t know what happened. I just know what I’ve read, and it’s ugly. That type of abuse and what’s alleged against him is just mind-boggling. That being said, he went through due process. He was not [criminally] charged. And on the pitching side, he’s a savant.”
Trevor Bauer has complicated history with Astros
Bauer had a running rivalry with Houston during his days with the Cincinnati Reds, and then briefly with the Dodgers. He even wore cleats with garbage cans on them, hinting at Houston’s sign-stealing scandal.
Still, the Astros did lose Justin Verlander this offseason, and will be in need of a veteran pitcher at some point to fill that rotation void. From a pure pitching standpoint, Bauer would make sense.
From a morality standpoint, any and all teams should stay away.