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The Indians Trashed Trevor Bauer During Their Arbitration Hearing And Basically Said Donating To Charity Is Bad

Divisional Round - Houston Astros v Cleveland Indians - Game Three

USA Today

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer, who won his arbitration case for $13 million, said he enjoyed the process until the final 10 minutes in which he accused the Indians’ representatives of presenting a “character assassination” against him.

Bauer, who will be eligible for free agency in two years, said he has no interest in signing a long-term contract with Cleveland, or anyone else, and intends to be in the arbitration hearing one last time next winter.

“They spent the last 10 minutes of the case trying a character-assassination,” Bauer said. “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].”

“Basically, that I’m a terrible human being,” Bauer said, “which was interesting on their part. I thought that giving to charity, especially because they didn’t mention it was a charitable campaign, just mentioned the name.”

“They don’t mention that I gave to 68 charities or that I donated more than $100,000. 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.

Looks like everything is just sunshine and rainbows over in Cleveland these days. Trevor Bauer sat down for his arbitration hearing and got his character assassinated by the teams’ representatives. According to the Indians, giving to charity is a bad thing and so is being on social media. You may recall last year Bauer requested $6.9 million during arbitration, but was warned it was too high. He settled on $6,420,969.69 (LOL). Later he agreed to $6,525,000 and avoided any sex or weed connotations. He instead donated the excess money to charity, making fun of the whole situation. He’s just a goofy guy.

Bauer launched what he’s calling The 69 Days of Giving. Starting Thursday on opening day, he will donate $420.69 a day for the next 68 days to a different charity, the majority of which he plans on choosing after soliciting suggestions from fans on his website. On the final day, Bauer will give $69,420.69 to a charity he’s keeping secret. -Yahoo Sports

Incredible. The Indians brought this all up during the meeting and bashed him for it. The Indians hate charity it seems. Not the best look in my opinion for a professional organization to say publicly, but I’m just a blogger.

Arbitration hearings never result to anything good. NEVER. One player thinks he’s worth x amount, while the team believes he’s worth x-y. When the Yankees did this with Dellin Betances a few years ago, it permanently ruined his relationship with upper management. Team president Randy Levine disparaged Dellin in the meeting. He didn’t even call him by his actual name. For Christ’s sake he blamed Betances for declining ticket sales and lack of playoff history. Dellin was in the midst of putting up reliever numbers very few have ever put up in the sports’ history.

It was very ironic to hear the Yankees’ president express his love and affection when he spent the only portion of the hearing, to which he contributed to, was calling this player by the wrong first name. It is Dellin, for the record. He then proceeded to blame Dellin for the Yankees’ declining ticket sales and their lack of playoff history while trying to bully the panel, saying something to the effect that the sky will fall if they rule for the player.” -NJ.com

Dellin wanted $5 million, but was awarded just $3 million. When the Yankees won the case, Levine gloated and said Dellin isn’t and will never be a closer. It was about as ugly as it could get, and when he becomes a free agent next season I doubt he’ll give New York any kind of discount.

Well, it seems like Trevor Bauer’s situation is even worse somehow. The Indians thought he was worth $10.5 million, but Bauer won his case and was awarded $13 million. The Indians argued that because he once said on a podcast that he was worth the $10.5 million number that he should only be paid that. That’s what they brought up in court, along with the charity issue and social media use. What a fucking mess.

Major League Baseball is fucked. Arbitration is a disaster. Service time is a joke. And owners not willing to spend anymore because they don’t have to is all bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.

I really like Trevor Bauer and think he’s fascinating. Sure he’s a bit of an asshole, but who isn’t? I like a guy who can go on social media and voice his opinion in a non-detrimental way. It’s a way to grow the game and interact with fans. He’s unique and walks his own path. I would welcome him on the Yankees pitching staff with open arms, assuming he stopped using his drone and stopped cutting off his own fingers.