CLEVELAND _ It was clear Trevor Bauer would be receiving some form of punishment from the league office after his in-game long toss on Sunday, but it appears as though he won't be hit too hard for the outburst.
Bauer will be receiving a fine but will not be suspended, according to MLB Network's Jon Heyman. The amount of the fine has not been released, and it has not yet been confirmed by the league.
As he was being taken out of Sunday's game, Bauer in a fit of frustration launched the ball from the mound over the center-field wall. He then addressed the team and issued a lengthy apology to reporters in Kansas City after the game.
When asked about the incident on Sunday, Francona chose for the most part not to address the situation. On Tuesday, he said he's still figuring out how he feels about it in terms of proper repercussions.
"I need to figure out myself what I think is proper or respectful," Francona said. "And I would never do something without (president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti) and (general manager Mike Chernoff's) input and I just thought they were so busy the last (day) that I didn't think it was right to put that on their plate. So, there will be a time to get to that when, again, we hear from the league and after they get a chance to settle down a little bit, we can discuss maybe exactly what's right to do moving forward."
Francona has often spoken about only doing things or worrying about things that help the team. In that sense, any potential form of additional punishment would be aimed at that goal, if it is deemed necessary.
"Well, I've always felt like people are gonna make mistakes, myself included and that's not the worst thing," Francona said. "What's important is where do you go from here. Do you make it better? Do you stay status quo? Do you make it worse? The idea is always to make it better. But I also have an obligation to the other 24 guys in there, too, and trying to balance that. And when you're emotional like I was the other day, that's certainly not the time to do it."
Bauer's frustration had been clearly building for several weeks. He noted a few starts ago he's been dealing with 'physical limitations' and then has been frustrated in outings in which he didn't feel how he was pitching lined up with the results. He has a 3.79 ERA and a 4.17 FIP in what has been a down year compared to his 2018 season in which he was a Cy Young candidate until being hit with a comebacker. He's also carried extra value with how deep he can pitch into games and entering Tuesday had a 12-inning lead on the rest of the league with 156 2/3 innings pitched.
"I don't want it to get lost because he did, he made a mistake," Francona said. "This guy pitches his ass off. He stays out there longer than anybody in the league. You can go on time; you can go on anything you want. This kid stays out there longer than anybody. And I get a front-row seat for that. So, again, I don't want to let a wrong get in the way of _ again, I want to fix it. You try to do the right thing. Sometimes that cannot be black and white. And I admit that it can be difficult."
