The manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dave Roberts, expressed concern that one of its star pitchers, Trevor Bauer, has been singled out in Major League Baseball’s renewed effort to reduce the illegal use of foreign substances in baseballs.
Bauer’s name appeared in a recent report on The Athletic’s website, which stated that several baseballs were collected for inspection after they were found to have visible marks and felt sticky. Bauer complained about the report via his Twitter account and criticized MLB for leaking information about “a supposedly confidential process.”
“It is my understanding that umpires collect baseballs from all pitchers and balls that were in play to collect samples,” Roberts said before his team’s home opener Friday morning. “That’s something I get from. I just hope our player is not selected. That’s the only thing I want to protect myself from.”
MLB, which has spent the past year trying to control pitchers using foreign matter in an effort to maximize spin speeds and generate more shifts and glitches, issued a memo to teams on March 23 detailing three new methods.
It included having two employees and a game-day compliance monitor stationed on each baseball field, partially responsible for identifying foreign substance violations. The league also said it would review Statcast data to identify alarming spikes in their turn speed and instruct field personnel, including umpires, to “send baseballs outside the game to the commissioner’s office for further inspection and documentation.”
“They will prioritize those that may have evidence of a foreign substance,” the memo said, “but they will also randomly select balls to ensure full coverage.”
Some of these will be contracted out to a lab for further inspection, but sources said ESPN that the league will spend the 2021 season mainly on gathering information. Bauer is currently not facing possible punishment from the competition. But the findings being inspected can be used as supporting evidence for future punishment.
Bauer publicly criticized the competition’s original memo, posting a 23-minute video on YouTube questioning the intent of MLB.