Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer dropped by CBS Sports Radio to discuss the fallout from the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, which, so far, has resulted in a $5 million fine, the loss of draft picks, and three managers losing their jobs.
Bauer, who pitched for the Indians from 2013-19, wasn’t exactly stunned when news of the scandal broke.
“Players talk, so stuff like this gets filtered out in inner baseball circles,” Bauer said on Tiki & Tierney. “Not necessarily to the public, but players hear things, players see things, you notice things in the game. . . . There’s a lot of stuff that goes around in inner baseball circles that we know long before it becomes public—and much of it never becomes public.”
Bauer has spoken to several major leaguers in recent days, and many are angry with the Astros. Some players were eliminated from the playoffs by the Astros, while others will have to compete against them—and their inflated stats—in free agency.
“It’s tough as a pitcher because they know what you’re going to be throwing in real time,” Bauer said. “You don’t leave me an option. There’s nothing I can do. . . . It’s a major black eye [for baseball]. My hope is that it all comes out now. Let’s just have one incident. Let’s move past it. The worst thing to happen would be this and then four or five months something else comes out.”
While the scandal undoubtedly taints the Astros’ 2017 World Series title, the stench could last well into the future.
“The Astros do so many things right,” Bauer said. “They’re so advanced and so ahead of the time on development and analytics and scouting. Now this one thing where they chose to step over the line is going to set back the perception of all the things they do five, 10, 15 – who knows how many years? Because now all of their accomplishments will be associated with cheating and not the fact that they actually develop players very well and have really advanced scouting reports and analytics and great information they can give to the players. . . . That’s all going to get washed away because they’re going to be associated with cheating.”