Right-hander Trevor Bauer was officially traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, but he was still on hand as the Tribe took on the Houston Astros at Progressive Field.
Bauer also met with Indians manager Terry Francona for a final time. Francona said the meeting with Bauer was “pretty short” and it brought him relief.
“Sometimes it’s emotional, and sometimes it’s not quite as emotional,” Francona said. “That’s just being honest.”
Francona acknowledged that he was concerned about long-term effects within the team following Bauer’s spectacle Sunday, when he angrily threw a ball from behind the mound over the center-field wall in Kansas City. Bauer later called the act “childish” and was fined by Major League Baseball.
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“I had concerns what it could do to our team, and I voiced those concerns,” Francona told reporters. “I would never, ever go tell [the front office] something, but they are good enough to always allow me my opinion, and you just try to do the best you can, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit worried.”
Bauer, who met with Cleveland reporters during Wednesday’s game, reacted with a smile and a long exhale when told of Francona’s comments.
“Well, I’m not on the team. So none of that really matters,” he said.
Bauer added that he has been pitching with an assortment of injuries — torn ankle ligaments, back spasms — since early this season.
“It’s been really frustrating,” he said. “One of the things I’m most proud about is I haven’t missed a start this year through two months of probably needing to be on the IL and probably should have missed some starts. I was able to get myself ready and take the ball.”
Among the players the Indians got back in the three-team, seven-player swap is mercurial outfielder Yasiel Puig, who was expected to arrive in Cleveland late Wednesday. Puig had a memorable departure from Cincinnati on Tuesday, when he ended up in the middle of a benches-clearing brawl with the Pirates shortly after the trade was agreed upon.
Francona watched the brawl unfold on a TV in his office but said he isn’t worried about Puig being a troublemaker. MLB has yet to announce any discipline.
“I need to talk to him. I need to ask him what’s important to him,” Francona said. “The fact that he may have done something four years ago in L.A. doesn’t affect how he’ll be treated here.”
But what about last night?
“I can tell you that if something ever happens, I’ll be behind him every step of the way,” Francona said.
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