Cleveland Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer is no stranger to Twitter controversy. He told one Twitter user to "quit life" last February and has also had multiple internet shouting matches over politics.
On Thursday, Bauer took to Twitter to implore his fellow players to be "leaders politically." He also claims MLB tried to censor him on political matters.
Just had a meeting encouraging all players to take a stance and be leaders politically. Here’s my stance. I find it disingenuous that @mlb commissioners office would encourage this when they’ve specifically tried to censor me for sharing my opinion on the matter. #RiseUp
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) March 8, 2018
Bauer was not especially active on Twitter during the offseason, mostly limiting himself to the occasional workout video or article link. On Thursday he further indicated MLB tried to censor his Twitter account.
Almost like I wasn’t allowed access to my twitter account for a while 🤔🤔
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) March 8, 2018
MLB and the MLBPA agreed to a social media policy during the 2011-12 offseason, as part of the previous round of the collective bargaining agreement. The policy prohibits, among other things, racist and homophobic tweets, as well as tweets that threaten violence or otherwise harass. So that "quit life" tweet? Against the policy.
The social media policy gives MLB and the 30 clubs the latitude to discipline players for their social media usage, so it's possible if not likely MLB (or the Indians) told Bauer to scale back on his Twitter usage give last year's controversies.
