Trevor Bauer‘s plan was to support Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly by wearing a pair of custom made cleats with the phrase ‘Free Joe Kelly’ on them.
Kelly, of course, was suspended for eight games (later reduced to five games) by Major League Baseball for intentionally throwing at Houston Astros’ batters.
Major League Baseball heard about his plan to wear the custom cleats and according to Bauer, they threatened to eject him from the game, suspend him, and levy unprecedented fines against him if he wore them.
Bauer took to Twitter on Thursday night to explain the situation.
When Justin Verlander’s brother Ben Verlander caught wind of Bauer’s tweet, he chimed in.
“‘Free Joe Kelly’. Who intentionally threw a heater at someone’s head almost 100mph. Which can in fact kill someone. But yea. Go ahead and support that. Kudos. So noble and powerful of you,” Verlander said.
Ben then pointed a tweet from Bauer in which he condemned throwing at people’s heads, followed by Bauer calling out Justin Verlander for hypocrisy.
Nation, whose side are you on?
