Trevor Bauer has become a new Mariners fan villain

The Seattle Mariners squared off against the 2020 World Series champions last night for the second time during this Spring. In both games, the Mariners had to face the 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer and it has been interesting, to say the least.

I will first start off and acknowledge Bauer’s talent. I have respect for Trevor Bauer and I think he is a really great pitcher. There is a reason why he won the Cy Young last season and the highest annually paid pitcher in MLB history. But, I don’t care for his showing off and other antics.

Right now, Mariners fans don’t have too many players to hate on besides the entire Astros team, but Trevor Bauer is emerging as a fan (favorite) villain.

March 11th – Trevor Bauer’s closed eye

The Mariners faced the Dodgers in a highly anticipated matchup during the second week of March. This was the infamous game where Trevor Bauer closed one of his eyes while facing Ty France on a 1-2 pitch, and ended up hitting Ty in the elbow pad.

As you could imagine, it became a huge talking point on Twitter, and M’s fans were so happy. It’s interesting because in Bauer’s previous outing he closed one eye while facing the Padres and bragged about it after the game.

But in the postgame interview, he told reporters that he had trouble focusing and closed his eye to re-focus. So, we have two different stories and I have the feeling he was trying to make an excuse for his failed attempt at showing off against the Mariners.

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March 22nd – Trevor Bauer throwing BP to the Mariners or excuses again?

Last night, Trevor Bauer was off to a magical start. He retired the first 11 Mariners hitters he faced and gave up his first hit to Kyle Lewis in the bottom of the fourth inning. Bauer also racked up five strikeouts in the first four innings of the game.

But, suddenly things started to change in the fifth inning. The Dodgers were up 2-0 and Bauer gave up back-to-back doubles to Luis Torrens and Dylan Moore to end Seattle’s scoreless drought.

After that, Evan White and Jose Marmolejos hit back-to-back dingers which gave the Mariners a 4-2 lead. Shortly after, Mitch Haniger hit his third home run of Spring Training to give the M’s a 5-2 lead.

Haniger was the last batter that Trevor faced. His line: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 5 SO, 3 HR.

Not only did he have a bad start, but Bauer also made some questionable comments after the game. He told reporters that he stopped focusing in the fifth inning because he just wanted to get his pitch count up.

Umm… it just sounds like another excuse to me. I know Trevor Bauer is a fierce competitor and there is no way he just told himself that I am going to stop trying. I know it’s Spring Training and there isn’t a whole lot on the line, but that is not Bauer-like. If anything, he probably wanted to end the night without giving up a single run.

These two events have made Seattle fans very cynical of Trevor Bauer and have turned him into the new villain. The Mariners play Kyle Seager’s brother’s team four times this season (4/19, 4/20, 5/11, 5/12) and I hope Bauer is on the bump for at least one of those games.

I would love to see the M’s give Trevor Bauer a hard time again. As you know, Batman always defeats the Joker.