CLEVELAND -- With the Cleveland Indians holding a media availability a day prior to their annual Tribe Fest, starting pitcher Trevor Bauer had the opportunity to address the social media spat that landed him in headlines for the better part of the past week.
He opted not to.
Rather, Bauer's session with reporters lasted less than 30 seconds and two questions -- the first of which focused on the steady stream of trade rumors that have involved the 27-year-old pitcher this offseason.
After Bauer dutifully answered the inquiry, a reporter then began another question by stating, "You had the social media thing last week," to which the one-time All-Star promptly ended the session.
"Alright, thanks for your time, guys," he said before walking off.
Earlier this week, Bauer became involved in a Twitter exchange with a 21-year-old woman in Texas, who called him her "least favorite person in all of sports" after a back and forth between Bauer and Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman. Over the course of three days, Bauer proceeded to send 80 tweets to the woman, who told USA Today Sports she felt as though she was being harassed.
“It has definitely ruined my last three days,” Nikki Giles told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “I have cried daily and called my family crying because the first 12-24 hours or so I was getting a lot of hate.
“He blamed me for ‘continuously tweeting him.' (That) makes zero sense because he had tagged me in over 40 tweets, which is over 10x as many tweets I mentioned him in," Giles said. "I eventually unblocked him when someone brought to my attention that he had tagged me in 30 more tweets in responses. And when I said I felt harassed, he continued to tweet things like this claiming that I was responding to him because 'I like him.'"
Giles said she contacted the Indians regarding the exchange, but they never responded. Reached by WKYC for comment, the Indians pointed to a pair of tweets posted by Bauer on Wednesday in which he said he would "wield the responsibility of my public platform more responsibly in the future."
Just prior to the Indians' media availability on Friday, Bauer once again took to Twitter, this time to seemingly referenced the incident and criticized the coverage it has received.
