As he enters his sixth season with the Cleveland Indians, Trevor Bauer has taken a more mature approach to his social media presence. That, however, hasn't stopped the right-handed pitcher from speaking up, which he did on Thursday, when he called the Major League Baseball commissioner's office hypocritical for encouraging players to speak up politically.
According to Bauer, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's office has "specifically tried to censor" him for sharing his political opinions in the past. The 27-year-old has previously identified himself as a supporter of President Donald Trump, a belief he said most of his Cleveland teammates share.
In a subsequent reply to his initial tweet, Bauer went on to infer that he had actually been blocked from accessing his Twitter account "for a while." It remains unclear whether he was referring to a directive from MLB, the Indians or Twitter itself.
Since being acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 2013 trade, the former No. 3 overall pick has been no stranger to controversy. In addition to some of his more polarizing tweets, Bauer's 2016 postseason came to an end when an accident with a drone led to a sizable cut on his throwing hand.
In 2017, the UCLA product bounced back a career year, as he earned a 17-9 record to go along with a 4.19 ERA and 196 strikeouts. He returns to the Indians this season after having been awarded a $6.525 million salary in arbitration this offseason.
