Disgraced former Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Guardians star Trevor Bauer is not happy that he continues to be shunned by the league, but Pete Rose has been reinstated.
The baseball world was stunned this week when MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and 15 other former players from the lifetime ban list. Now, making them eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bauer is not expecting to go into the Hall one day. But he is wondering why those men are back in the good graces of the league instead of him. Despite never being officially charged with sexual assault.
Related: Los Angeles Dodgers game today – Get a look at the upcoming Dodgers schedule
“So, since Pete is welcome back now, does that go for everyone who has been blackballed? Or do you actually have to be guilty of something to qualify for that?” Bauer said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, this week following the reinstatement news.
The 2021 scandal that linked Trevor Bauer to several instances of sexual assault rocked MLB to its core. The one-time All-Star was seen as one of the best pitchers in baseball at the time. And was just a year removed from winning the National League Cy Young award.
However, a report revealing brutal claims of sexual assault led to other accusers stepping forward. As well as investigations by local authorities in California and MLB. The pitcher was never officially accused of a crime. But the league found enough horrifying evidence to hand down a record 324-game ban. Costing him the rest of that season and all of the 2022 campaign.
Despite not being accused of a crime, when he was available to be signed by clubs in 2023, they all passed due to the public relations nightmare of signing him. He has remained outside the league ever since and has instead played internationally in Korea and Mexico.
It also must be noted that the 16 names removed from the MLB lifetime ban list were deceased. And Manfred reasoned that they could not harm the league since they had passed away.
