Author: Billy Taylor
Editor: Brian Symons
At the time of writing it has been exactly one week since the horrible story about former Mets GM Jared Porter. It has created lots of negativity around the New York Mets and the baseball world as a whole, for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, the offseason moves on for the Mets despite having a vacant GM spot.
Since the Jared Porter story was released late in the night on January 18th, momentum on Trevor Bauer’s decision in free agency has started to pick up with the Mets and the Angels being the reported frontrunners. If you go on Twitter, the opinions of Mets fans on Trevor Bauer have changed quite drastically since the beginning of the offseason in light of the Jared Porter firing. Part of this is because Bauer loves to “flex” his Twitter fingers often responding to criticism from reporters and fans.
Specifically, in August there was an incident between Bauer and New York Daily News reporter and senior TV writer Kate Feldman. Ken Rosenthal from the Athletic wrote an article reporting that the Mets were in on Bauer, but the team is worried that signing him would "renew questions about the team's culture". Kate Feldman responded to this article explaining that she was harassed for months on Twitter after making Bauer upset by questioning his opinions on the coronavirus. "I had death threats and Holocaust jokes in my mentions for months after he went after me," Feldman wrote. "I didn't tag him. I didn't even QT [quote tweet] him. This is what his followers did after he told them to go after me. This is OK with his agent, reporters and, I guess, the Mets." Trevor’s response to Kate’s original tweet criticizing him read: “When you’re definitely not terrible at your job or desperate for someone to notice you. Here, let me send some more followers your way. Have a wonderful day!!” Is this Bauer coaxing his followers to attack Kate? I don’t think so, a bit of a stretch.
Assuming Bauer’s followers really harassed Kate in the way that she explained, they were completely out of line and added to the ongoing dialogue of how women are perceived and treated in world sports. With that being said, should Bauer bear the irresponsibility of his followers? No. Would Bauer be a nice addition to the Mets rotation? For sure. Do I want the attention Bauer brings to the New York Mets? Absolutely not. Bauer has yet to sign is already being put through the ringer, can you imagine if he signs with the Mets and something like this inevitably happens again? Or he has a bad start and gives up six or seven runs in a blowout? The New York Mets are already being watched under a microscope with their exciting offseason moves, and the darkness of the Jared Porter story. Bauer will only amplify any potential distractions, especially when it comes to playing in the New York market. The fact that he could potentially make more than Jacob DeGrom, our homegrown ace of the rotation does not sit well with me either.
When it comes to Bauer on the field, I go back and forth on whether or not he could work out for the Mets. Trevor can be a really good pitcher. 2018 was one of his best years, he started 27 games and had a 2.21 ERA in 175.1 innings pitched. He also won the Cy Young award this past season, posting a 1.73 ERA in 11 games due to the shortened season. Of course, this should be taken with a grain of salt due to it being such a small sample size. Another thing that concerns me is in Bauer’s Cy Young year he only pitched against the AL and NL Central. Don’t get it twisted, there’s some solid teams in those divisions. But in those 11 starts, Bauer pitched against the Pirates, Royals, and Tigers a total of 5 times. Teams which I think we can agree are some of the worst teams in the league.
Other than 2018 and 2020 Bauer has been pretty solid, posting an ERA just above 4 from 2012 – 2017 and 2019. An ERA hovering just above 4 is above average if we’re being fair, but for the money Bauer is going to command it doesn’t make me feel too great. If the Mets can land Bauer on a one-year deal, I can’t be too angry about it, it could go a long way being in a competitive NL East. But if I’m Bauer I would cash in on a multi-year deal riding off the stats of my 2020 campaign. The fact he just turned 30 years old means that regression could be coming as well.
If the Mets sign Bauer, there’s going to be times where he thrives in the New York market. He’ll play to the fans well when he strikes out at someone and does the McGregor “Billionaire Strut” or pretends to shotgun a beer. But when he eventually fires off a provocative tweet or has a rough outing, the fans, media, and maybe even the clubhouse will turn on him causing unwanted attention for a New York Mets team who has potential to make noise this upcoming season.
SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE
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