Bauer, that new Dodger guy, tries to make nice with Mets fans
Trevor Bauer, two days after making his decision, realized where he went wrong.
Bauer signed with the Dodgers Friday afternoon after many believed he would pick the Mets in the two-team showdown. The night before he made his decision, reporters stated the Mets’ $100M offer would likely net the 2020 NL Cy Young award winner. The reports said the Mets were “confident” Bauer would be coming to Flushing, with USA Today even reporting Bauer to the Mets was a done deal. A link to purchasing Mets merch even appeared on Bauer’s linktree, attached to his Instagram page, on Friday, but was quickly taken down.
The Mets fan base was excited, but then Bauer introduced his pick wearing the Dodgers’ signature blue and white. Mets fans were enraged and Bauer was called out for using the Mets as leverage.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Bauer issued an apology and recounted the events of Thursday and Friday from his point of view via his social media platforms. He also announced he would be donating $10K each to four charities in the Big Apple: Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, STEM Kids NYC, The Get Schooled Foundation and Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens.
“Mets fans, I owe you an explanation and apology,” he wrote.
“My intention this entire offseason was to engage with fans in ways that made the off season and free agent process more interesting. I woke up early on Friday not knowing what my decision would be and spent the next 5 hours on the phone with my representation team trying to figure that out. I wasn’t on social media or my website, as my marketing and digital team was managing both at the time, so I didn’t see what happened until after the fact. I’ve taken some time over the last two days to figure it out, and I take full responsibility for the mistakes outlined below. In the spirit of transparency, here’s what happened:
“Throughout the free agency process, my team prepared marketing materials for multiple organizations, as I didn’t know where or when I would sign. In order to be prepared for a moment that could materialize very quickly, we had uploaded many of those to my website on the back-end. The plan was not to have those pages live until a decision had been made, which is obviously not what happened. That was the first mistake. The plan was to release a link to my website and the appropriate materials via linktree on my Instagram page once my decision was finalized. Unfortunately, that link was posted in error well before any decision had been made. That was the second mistake. Understandably, the link was quickly discovered and began to spread on social media.
“The resulting confusion is understandable and regrettable. My intention was never to mislead your fan base, nor was it to troll you in any way. I had a fantastic time engaging with fans from many teams over the last few months and Mets fans priced to be as passionate and energetic a bunch as any, so I offer my sincerest apologies for how the events Friday played out.”