Hernández: Dodgers’ brass still won’t take accountability for Trevor Bauer fiasco

On one aspect there are the Dodgers, who’ve an advanced relationship with the reality, and on the opposite is Trevor Bauer.

They’re telling two very totally different tales a few assembly they each acknowledge occurred in Arizona final week, Bauer claiming Dodgers officers informed him they needed him to pitch for them within the upcoming season, and nameless workforce officers denying such sentiments have been ever conveyed.

Many individuals in Main League Baseball accustomed to each events don’t know whom to consider, this ambiguity diminishing no matter ethical triumph the Dodgers have been attempting to assert after they formally launched Bauer on Thursday.

The Dodgers can solely blame themselves.

When Bauer was suspended by the commissioner’s workplace final 12 months for a violation of MLB’s sexual assault and home violence coverage, the workforce launched a press release by which it cited his proper to attraction and mentioned: “Due to this fact, we won’t remark additional till the method is full.”

Nicely, the method is now full and the Dodgers nonetheless aren’t commenting; Stan Kasten and Andrew Friedman informed The Instances they gained’t speak about Bauer as a result of he’s a free agent. In principle, a workforce might be sanctioned for diminishing the worth of a participant on the open market.

This, after all, is nonsense, as there’s nothing the Dodgers might say that will injury Bauer as a lot as his document 194-game suspension already has.

Friedman, the workforce’s president of baseball operations, and Kasten, the workforce’s president, mentioned they might handle the topic if Bauer indicators with one other workforce, however that’s unlikely to occur.

And even when Bauer finds a brand new employer, who is aware of if Friedman and Kasten would truly discuss. They haven’t earned that good thing about the doubt, as they’ve histories of not proudly owning their errors. Transparency will not be what they’re about.

Lengthy outlined by Jackie Robinson’s braveness and Sandy Koufax’s grace, the Dodgers at the moment are a franchise characterised by Kasten’s shamelessness and proprietor Mark Walter’s cowardice.

The group’s silence was solely anticipated, because the Dodgers have created an higher administration tradition nearly solely devoid of accountability.

They provided little greater than empty platitudes over their scandalous six-year tv blackout, blaming everybody however their grasping selves for SportsNet LA’s lack of widespread distribution.

When their workforce choked once more in October, Friedman continued deflecting questions on how they deploy their pitchers, ignoring the mounting proof that what they’re doing doesn’t work.

The Dodgers aren’t as sensible as they suppose they’re however they’re not full idiots both, they usually nearly actually have their causes for not eager to revisit their employment and termination of Bauer.

Their courtship of him two years in the past was an train in hubris, Friedman’s need to strike an unconventional team-friendly contract overriding the pitcher’s well-known character points.

Friedman and his lieutenants both screwed up vetting Bauer or didn’t care about what they discovered. Whichever the case, they’ve by no means admitted their error or defined what they’ve completed to make sure they don’t make an analogous mistake sooner or later.

The ending was practically as problematic. When Bauer’s attraction course of was accomplished and the unique 324-game sentence was lowered, why didn’t they launch him instantly?

The Dodgers wouldn’t have met with Bauer final week in the event that they weren’t a minimum of open to the potential of him pitching for them once more. How severely did they think about retaining him? What was Walter’s place? Friedman’s? Kasten’s?

In response to Bauer, “Dodgers management” mentioned the workforce needed him again; is there a workforce official who’s prepared to contradict him on the document? In the event that they provided him an opportunity to return, was it below sure situations Bauer was unwilling to simply accept?

When Bauer was designated for project final week, the Dodgers mentioned they did so after “cautious consideration.” What was there to rigorously think about? What did they be taught within the assembly that they didn’t already know? Have been the Dodgers pressured into letting him go by any outdoors forces, whether or not they be season-ticket holders, advocacy teams or sponsors?

How might this winter be categorized as something apart from a catastrophe when Bauer not solely saved them from signing high-end free brokers but additionally from staying below the luxury-tax threshold due to the $22.5 million they need to pay him? Don’t their followers deserve higher?

Workforce officers gained’t say. Answering questions would require them to simply accept a level of duty.

Don’t count on that to alter, as Walter, Kasten and Friedman are as soon as once more prone to take refuge behind supervisor Dave Roberts, who had little to do with Bauer’s recruitment however has nonetheless answered nearly all of Bauer-related questions during the last two years.

The usage of Roberts as a meat protect reveals an apparent lack of character on the elements of his bosses, who don’t appear bothered by how they’re perceived. As Kasten likes to remind reporters, the Dodgers lead baseball in attendance.

Administration isn’t holding itself accountable as a result of it is aware of the general public gained’t. The Dodgers’ fame could be broken however the group remains to be earning money.