You can’t steal a pitcher’s sign if he gives it to you willingly. Such goes the logic of Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Trevor Bauer.
Bauer, one of the loudest critics of the sign-stealing scheme the Houston Astros used in 2017 and potentially more, tipped his pitches to Los Angeles Dodgers batter Matt Beaty in a spring training game Monday.
Bauer did not explicitly call over to Beaty what he was pitching, but the television announcers picked up that Bauer was making an obvious motion with his glove for Beaty to see before throwing fastballs.
Despite this, Bauer got Beaty to line out.
Reds teammate Derek Dietrich appeared glad to explain to a Fox Sports sideline reporter why Bauer was doing this.
“Trevor and I are good friends, and if you followed baseball this offseason, there’s a little thing going on with sign-stealing,” Dietrich said. “Trevor’s not too fond of it. So he figures he’s going to try something new this season and he’s going to start telling the batters what’s coming, and that way there’s no ifs, ands or buts about what’s going on.
“Just, here it comes. Try to hit it.”
“He’s gonna start telling batters what’s coming. … It’s just here it comes, try to hit it.”
— ESPN (@espn) March 3, 2020
Trevor Bauer was indicating to Dodgers’ batters what pitch he was throwing. pic.twitter.com/WyXULCCe98
The Fox reporter noted that that might not be a great idea come the regular season.
“We’ll see. You never know,” Dietrich said. Trevor’s always gonna do something nuts and we enjoy him, so it’s pretty cool.”
Bauer has a reputation as one of the unique characters in the sport. He once was accused of writing “BD 911” into the sand on the mound at a game as a reference to the conspiracy theory “Bush Did 9/11,” which he denied was his intent. When he played for the Cleveland Indians last year, he chucked the ball from the mound over the centerfield fence after giving up seven runs. And when he was traded from Cleveland to Cincinnati days later, he showed up to an Indians game as a paying fan.
Bauer has called the Astros involved in sign-stealing “hypocrites” and compared them with the 1919 Chicago White Sox, who had eight players banned from baseball for fixing the World Series in a gambling scheme.
Beaty has never played for the Astros, so it doesn’t seem that he was chosen for Bauer’s experiment for any particular reason.
Elsewhere in spring training Monday, Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was wearing a broadcast microphone while at the plate during a game against the Los Angeles Angels, and he joked, “Someone bang for me,” referring to how the Astros banged on trash cans to relay types of pitches to the batter at the plate.
Anthony Rizzo taking shots at the Astros mid game on live television is awesome. 🤣 (Via @brian_donley34) pic.twitter.com/qgqFNBKQut
— Cubs Live (@Cubs_Live) March 2, 2020
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.