Bauer critical of league's 'knee-jerk reaction' over substances

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Trevor Bauer criticizes MLB for midseason crackdown on foreign substances

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Larry Brown | Last updated 6/15/21

Trevor Bauer thinks MLB’s crackdown on foreign substances to create a more fair playing field is a good thing. However, he has a problem with the timing of the crackdown.

Bauer tweeted about MLB’s crackdown on Tuesday in response to Tyler Glasnow blaming the change for his arm injury. Bauer agreed with Glasnow’s criticism of the timing of the change.

To be clear, the memo is fine long term, and it will serve to level the playing field. That is a good thing. But to implement it mid season when for 3 months you’ve promised players and teams that nothing about your chosen enforcement of the rules would change this year and

— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2021

Bauer says MLB’s biggest error was lying to teams and players by saying no big changes would be made this year, only to change things midseason.

“Actively encouraged players to continue playing how that have in the past, that’s a lie. There’s no integrity in that. So save it with the competitive integrity bulls— @mlb. All you care about is the bottom line of the business, and public perception negatively affecting it,” Bauer wrote, edited for profanity.

Bauer also thinks that enforcing the rules will prove to be difficult for umpires.

The “competitive integrity” of the game. It would be really unfair to have one crew think sticky is one thing and another crew to think it’s another thing. Rules are supposed to be uniformly enforced right? Almost like you should’ve used an off season to define that

— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2021

Bauer has spoken publicly multiple times about the foreign substances issue facing MLB. The 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner recently challenged the league to enforce its rules.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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