Since the beginning of the off-season, I have been 100% against the Mets signing Trevor Bauer, but since he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, I feel like the Mets dodged a wicked bullet. Why you may ask? I’ll be glad to tell you.

The simple reason, he’s a head case, but that’s not to say he’s a bad person.

Here’s the in depth reason why the Mets dodged a wicked Bullet.

He’s a head case in the sense that he is very defensive on social media to anyone who isn’t a fan of his and is in love with his character on twitter based off of a 60 game, 11 start season. Keep in mind, during the 2020 season, he faced off against teams that were mostly “lightweights” from the National League Central Division and the American League Central Division. In his 11 starts last year Bauer only had to face the Brewers, Detroit, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Cubs and the White Sox. In my opinion, the only two teams who were really good were the two Chicago teams in the Cubs and White Sox. There’s no denying that Bauer had a brilliant season, but it begs the question, would Bauer be able to keep it up for 20 more start equaling up to 31+ Starts?

I personally don’t think he would be able to keep up a great pace when facing stronger teams in the National League like the National League East and West where Bauer would have to face the Mets, Braves, Dodgers, Nationals, Rockies, Arizona, Padres, etc. I don’t think Bauer would be able to keep up the pace against teams that were much better than those in the Central with the exception being The Cubs.

So why was I so against Trevor Bauer coming to the Mets? You may remember recently that the Mets terminated Jared Porter from the GM position and ousted from the Mets because of his inappropriate texting to a reporter. Now, I’m not saying Trevor Bauer has done anything of that magnitude, but he has harassed a woman online who wasn’t a fan of his for over 12 hours. Bauer is very defensive about himself on social media and is usually quick to strike if you criticize him. This woman he harassed was a college student who clearly wasn’t a fan of his and made a tweet because she was an Astros fan. Bauer took that and ran with it so far that the woman had to block him on social media for a few reasons. The first was that Bauer was tweeting at her nonstop. After she blocked him, Bauer continued to tweet about her and even sent his followers to continue to harass her.

While he may have apologized several days later, this kind of behavior is unacceptable. It’s one thing to have a small back and forth and it being completely harmless, but it’s another to go off on her for over 12 hours and also sending your followers to continue the job for you. If the Mets signed Trevor Bauer, owner Steve Cohen would have to keep a very sharp eye on Bauer’s twitter activity.

Another reason why the Mets dodged the Bauer Bullet, is because his demands for payment were absolutely ludicrous. He was demanding 40 million dollars not only based on what he did in a 60 game season, but because his former college teammate Gerrit Cole makes 36 Million dollars with the Yankees. The issue is, I don’t think Bauer will be able to repeat his 2020 success for the simple reason being that 2021 will be a full 162 games season where he’ll face the entire National League as well as play interleague games against the American League West which contains the Astros, Rangers, Angels, Athletics and Mariners. While the AL West is no glorious division, it provides more competition in the Angels, Athletics and Astros than AL central had to offer.

The dodgers signed Trevor Bauer to a 3 year $102 million deal which gives him $40 million his first year and an opt out, $45 million the second year and an opt out. After that year, he’ll make $17 Million which will be surprising if he stays for a third unless injuries or a bad year happens. The Mets offer was similar in 3 years where he would’ve made $40 million the first year, $35 million the second year and $30 million the third year. After a great 11 starts against mostly weak teams, he’s just not worth of that kind of money. If Bauer puts up that kind of performance in a 162 game season, 30+ starts and maintained that, then I can agree with him getting a big deal, but even still, he’s not worth what he got.

Leading up to his signing with the Dodgers, Bauer gave the okay to his marketing team to push Mets and Dodgers apparel to troll both Mets and Dodger fans which included Bauer shirts, signed hats etc. Some time after he signed with the Dodgers, Bauer issued an apology to the Mets fans saying that he blamed reporting on the backlash. He also blamed his social media and marketing team, and claimed he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. I call BS. He knew exactly what he was getting into when he gave the okay for the marketing team to sell the Mets and Dodgers merchandise. His apology was a PR stunt to try and keep his social media character going and after words, he donated $10 grand to some New York non-profit charities. The only good gesture in his apology was the donations in my opinion. Aside from that, he made his reveal to the Dodgers “LeBron esque” with a YouTube reveal because he wanted all the attention. He got it alright.

The Mets are better off and honestly, I think after the trolling on social media, he would not be able to survive against the New York Media, especially if he didn’t put up respectable numbers for a “40 Million Dollar pitcher.” The media would eat him alive and he wouldn’t be able to handle it.

I wish Bauer nothing but the Best in LA. Do I think he’ll replicate his 2020 numbers? Absolutely not. Do I think he has a chance to be great? Absolutely. Do I think he’ll be better than Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, Clayton Kershaw or even Max Scherzer? I doubt it, but he has a chance to be….A very small one, but a chance nonetheless. I doubt he’ll ever be as great or even have the career those 4 pitchers have, but this is his chance to prove me wrong. If he doesn’t put up respectable numbers with the Dodgers and reverts back to his 4 ERA self, it’ll prove that 2020 was only a fluke due to it being a shortened season against a weak division and a weak interleague counterpart.