So not quite out of baseball, but close.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I think the Royals just outed themselves as leading contender for Trevor Bauer.

I wonder if there are any teams willing to take the PR hit on Bauer in exchange for a potential longer-term bargain. E.g. minimum salary this year + a series of $20m team options. He's kind of over a barrel and might take it.

I'm all for folks holding slimeballs responsible for acts like this forever. But the Chapman incident was a long time ago and the Cubs traded for him and the Yanks
re-signed him since. Neither of those teams suffered massive PR hits for doing so and the vast majority of their fans seemed comfortable cheering for the guy, at
least as long as he did the job. That probably won't be true for Bauer. Anyway, the Royals deserve no more opprobrium than the Cubs (Chapman and Russell), Yanks,
employers of Ozuna or employers of all the guys whose names I've forgotten. Add employers of drunk drivers, PED users, etc. depending on where you want to draw the line.
The Royals at least can go with "X years with a clean record."

And I'm not sure which point #1 was trying to make but let's be clear the reason Chapma is almost out of baseball is because he stunk last year. He'll probably never see
big money again but a return even to just 2021 levels will easily get him a contract for next year.

Not in any way intended as a criticism of the posters just a recognition of the reality.

The point is that the Royals are terrible so playing for them is almost like being out of baseball

The justification seems to be "hey, he might be good and we can flip him" but the track record on reliever rentals seems to be not that great? I guess the Cubs got Ben Brown for David Robertson and we'll see if he pans out, but it just seems like the Royals would be better off scouring the waiver wire and giving innings to young pitchers than wasting time with Chapman.

And I'm not sure which point #1 was trying to make but let's be clear the reason Chapman is almost out of baseball is because he stunk last year. He'll probably never see
big money again but a return even to just 2021 levels will easily get him a contract for next year.

Not only bad but he quit on the team, missing a mandatory workout and being cut from the playoff roster. That's the sort of thing that makes teams look at you sideways, so if you can't be good at least make the team a better place. Washed up relievers are like backup catchers: they need to do one thing well (catch well, or get lefties or grounders or something) and then be cheap and get along. Chapman hasn't gotten the memo yet.

Neither of those teams suffered massive PR hits for doing so and the vast majority of their fans seemed comfortable cheering for the guy, at
least as long as he did the job.

You're forgetting that I complained about the trade almost the entire year... of course, that was mostly because I thought it was a big overpay and I felt bad for Hector Rondon, but still... There was a PR hit with Zonk!

I added up some number of dollars for each save or each appearance he made for the Cubs in 2016 and donated it to a domestic violence shelter the day after Game 7. Somewhere I have a picture of me handing them a check. Also, the Cubs were more or less my #1 interest in life until that year, while since that year I've attended one Cubs game and not watched a single one on TV. The acquisition of Champman is certainly not the only reason for that but it's on the list. So yeah, PR hit here too.

I wonder if there are any teams willing to take the PR hit on Bauer in exchange for a potential longer-term bargain. E.g. minimum salary this year + a series of $20m team options. He's kind of over a barrel and might take it.

Anything is possible with pro athletes, but B-R shows him having made $111.65 million in salary He's likely not over any sort of barrel.

Myself and most Cubs fans I know didn't cheer for Chapman, he was just there.

#2: I wonder how long a word can be so as to break the site (or at least make the resulting font microscopic).

Sad to see. So many decent people who play the game, but scum Chapman gets another shot. Ah well, another team to boo loudly against. They might as well sign Bauer as well now and see if Osuna can still pitch. Carlos Martínez probably stunk too much to get another shot anyways.

As to the quit on the team during the playoffs - not an issue in KC.

E.g. minimum salary this year + a series of $20m team options. He's kind of over a barrel and might take it.

He's getting paid by the Dodgers this year anyway. Why would he do that?

Anyway, is Chapman a worse bet than the guy coming off of a missed year due to TJ surgery, who just got an $11.5 million deal? (EDIT: Luke Jackson with the Giants)

Reliever contracts are hard for me to understand.

He's getting paid by the Dodgers this year anyway. Why would he do that?

Because he wants to pitch in MLB again, and if he's out for '23 he may just be blackballed forever? Honestly, he may just be done with baseball, I could see him going that route, but I guess I assume he'd rather continue playing.

Nobody cares about this stuff except writers and people who write on message boards. Bauer will find a home and whoever takes him on will not suffer any measurable loss of attendance or television ratings. Fans just care about winning and I would argue most people both don't care and really just don't want to know. It's the same logic as why a lot of people don't want to go to depressing movies. It's escapism and when the writers obsessively whine about this stuff, fans just turn off the media. Ozuna was filmed by a copy hitting his wife with his cast - you can't get anymore graphic than that - he's still playing.

Anyway, is Chapman a worse bet than the guy coming off of a missed year due to TJ surgery, who just got an $11.5 million deal? (EDIT: Luke Jackson with the Giants)

Chapman's fastball is down a few ticks and he literally had the highest walk rate for anyone with 30 IP. Worth a flier, but not worth much more in a purely baseball sense, plus you have baggage.

Reportedly he did turn down more money with contenders to close for the Royals. So saves are still a thing in the year of our lord 2023. Amazing.

Two days later and I'm still not exactly sure how I should parse the words in "agree to deal with" Chapman.

I think it goes "agree to deal" followed by "League approval" and "physician's approval" closed up by "sign a contract" and "wear a hat" party.

These days they seem to be doing more during the reviews than just checking for a pulse. Who knows, maybe they're waiting to see if the community loses their mind over signing the bad man before moving ahead.