Trevor Bauer sounds off

Never unspoken about his thoughts and feelings, former UCLA Bruins pitcher Trevor Bauer has found his way back into the limelight during the MLB’s Opening Day festivities, and did so before he even took the mound for the first time in 2020.

Ahead of his Opening Weekend start for the Cincinnati Reds, the former third overall pick of the 2011 MLB Draft, Bauer took to Twitter with a rather outlandish take.

Bauer penned a tweet with a picture of Dr. Anthony Fauci and his family, taken after he threw out the first pitch of the New York Yankees vs Washington Nationals Opening Day game. In the tweet, Bauer writes “Great news! Fans can be in the stands for @mlb baseball this year! And, you are allowed to make a personal decision to wear/not wear a mask!” Following the sentiment with multiple hashtags including #OpeningDay, #LetTheFansIn and #BornToBaseball

Some of the replies were, well, as you’d expect after that message.

Bauer played for UCLA from 2009-2011, winning the 2011 Golden Spikes Award. He was an All-Star last season and has a career win-loss record of 70-60 in the majors. He led the American League in FIP (fielding independent pitching) at 2.44 last season while finishing sixth in Cy Young voting.

His best season with the Bruins was definitely that 2011 season when he went 13-2 with a 1.25 ERA and had 203 strikeouts to set the Pac-12 single-season record. He won the Golden Spikes and the National Pitcher of the Year Award while establishing the UCLA record for career strikeouts at 460 upon his pro departure.