If Pete Rose can be forgiven, why can’t Trevor Bauer?
That’s what the former Cy Young Award winner is asking after the Cincinnati Reds great was posthumously reinstated by the league earlier this week after seemingly serving a lifetime banishment.
Bauer hasn’t pitched in the majors since being suspended in 2021 over sexual assault allegations, which he was later cleared of.
“So, since Pete is welcome back now, does that go for everyone who has been blackballed?” Bauer wrote on X. “Or do you actually have to be guilty of something to qualify for that?”
Rose had been on the league’s permanently ineligible list since Aug. 1989 for gambling on baseball while serving as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. After decades of denying the claims, Rose later owned up to them while maintaining that he never bet on his own team to lose.
Bauer, who won the NL Cy Young Award in 2020 with the Reds, is currently pitching for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.
His profile on X boasts that he is the first pitcher to be a MLB, NPB and LMB (Mexico’s top baseball league) all-star.
While Bauer is eligible to sign with any of the 30 MLB franchises, the pitcher claims that he has been blackballed since getting hit with the allegations.
Bauer initially was placed on administrative leave before eventually being suspended for 324 games — which later was reduced to 194 upon appeal.
Last fall, Bauer claimed that it was “an MLB decision” whether he ever signs with another team, though the league denied it in a statement obtained by the Daily Mail.
“Trevor Bauer served the entirety of his discipline and is an unrestricted free agent available to sign a contract with any team,” the statement read.
During his MLB career, Bauer pitched for Arizona, Cleveland, Cincinnati and the L.A. Dodgers, compiling a record of 83-69 with a 3.79 ERA.
After the decision by commissioner Rob Manfred – after reported prodding from U.S. President Donald Trump – Rose is now eligible to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball’s all-time hits leader, who died in September, will be considered by the Classic Baseball Era Committee in Dec. 2027.