Trevor Bauer’s tweeting bit him right in the butt.
The All-Star right-handed pitcher won his arbitration hearing against the Indians for $13 million, but accused the organization of “character assassination” following the process, likely because Bauer’s Twitter account was brought up by those arguing in favor of the Indians, according to ESPN.com.
“They spent the last 10 minutes of the case trying a character assassination,” Bauer told USA Today. “I learned that giving to charity is a bad thing. I learned that agreeing with someone on a podcast just for the sake of argument that I was worth $10.5 million, and should be the definitive answer why I’m not worth $13 [million].”
Bauer said he came away believing the Indians think he’s a “terrible human being” and ignored many charitable campaigns (68 in total) that he participated in. He was also offended that Indians president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff didn’t show up for the hearing, despite personal invitations.
“They don’t mention that I gave to 68 charities or that I donated more than $100,000,” Bauer said of his “69 Days of Giving” campaign. “Or that the whole point of the campaign was to bring awareness to all those charities, past the money I was giving them. Nothing about that. They just tried to say that I was bad for donating or for running that campaign.
“Painfully, the arbitrator didn’t see it as a negative.”
The 28-year-old, who was an All-Star for the first time in 2018, was involved in a bizarre cyber-bullying battle that expanded for days with a Texas college student, who told him he wasn’t her favorite baseball player. He sent over 75 tweets mentioning the student, which opened her up to sexual harassment and hateful messages from Bauer fans.
Bauer acknowledged his behavior in the exchange but never offered an apology to the student.
It was the second time Bauer won an arbitration hearing against the Indians, who had proposed a $11 million salary. He will be eligible for free agency in two years and said he won’t sign a long-term contract with Cleveland or any other team.