CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jason Kipnis has seen the scene unfold many times.
A player gets traded, gets hugs from his former teammates, and then tries to process what just happened to him. So it was with Trevor Bauer on Tuesday night following the Indians’ 2-0 loss to Houston.
The Indians traded Bauer to Cincinnati in a three-team deal. They will receive outfielder Yasiel Puig and left-hander Scott Moss from the Reds and outfielder Franmil Reyes, left-hander Logan Allen and infielder Victor Nova from San Diego.
As Bauer was processing the deal, so was Kipnis, who is in his eighth season with the Tribe. He said he wanted to gather his thoughts, and make sure everything was official, before commenting, but he still talked about the pitcher the Indians gave up and what it means to a team in the middle of a race for the postseason.
“You’re losing a damn good pitcher and we’re in a race right now," said Kipnis. "It’s not fun for our clubhouse and I’m sure it wasn’t fun for the front office. It’s a hard trigger to pull, but hopefully we get some guys here who are ready to compete and fit in and ready to buy into what we’re doing here.”
Bauer was quirky. His last pitch as an Indians player saw him throw a ball over the center field fence at Kauffman Stadium in a fit of frustration on Sunday. He was fined by MLB for his actions, but Kipnis said he had confidence in Bauer whenever he took the mound.
“Regardless of what’s has happened with Trevor the last few days here, he was pulling on the same rope we were,” said Kipnis. “He was fighting with us to get back in this division race the whole time. Like I said, he’s a damn good pitcher. Hopefully we get guys who can replace him and keep going.”
Puig and Reyes will join the Indians in the near future. Moss, Allen and Nova will go to the minors.
The Indians acquired Bauer on December of 2012 in a three-team deal with the Reds and Arizona. He has his own training routine and a obsession with drones that may have cost the Indians a chance to win the World Series in 2016 when he suffered a cut right pinky finger early in the postseason. But eventually Bauer found a home with the Tribe and became a key part to one of the best rotations in the big leagues.
“He’s just one of those guys who is set in his ways and you have to get used to him,” said Kipnis. "Telling him just don’t do that doesn’t resonate with him. You have to give him a reason why or show him why that makes sense to him.
"It doesn’t mean he’s a bad person, a bad teammate just because he has his own ways about things. He can be misunderstood at times. You have to find that middle ground, which we have over time. You learn how to communicate with him, learn how to work with him and progress toward having a productive environment here.
“I think we were getting there. I think we got there.”
Like most big-league teams, the Indians are not made up of 25 guys who go out to dinner together after every game. But they have co-existed enough on the field to where they are in contention for their fourth straight AL Central title.
“No one has to be best friends here,” said Kipnis. "No one has to hang out off the field. It’s still business. It’s still work. I think guys come here and are professional about it.
“I don’t think you have to love everybody that you play with. But you will respect everybody you play with, you will fight alongside them and for them. He was doing that.”
Bauer heads to the non-contending Reds with a 9-8 record and a 3.79 ERA in 24 starts this season. He leads the big leagues in innings pitched, hit batsmen, walks and pitches thrown. That does not include the ball he threw over the center field fence on Sunday.
He went 67-53 with a 3.89 ERA with the Indians.
“I’m guessing we were favored in every game he’s started (this year),” said Kipnis. "He’s been in the Cy Young race the last couple of years. You ask opposing hitters. . .he’s one of the top strikeout pitchers in the league and he’s a damn good righty. He eats up innings. There’s a lot of value in that.
“Like I said he’s one of the better pitchers in this league. We know that. He knows that. You can’t really take that away from him. You feel confident when he’s out there on the mound.”
The trading deadline ends Wednesday at 4 p.m. The Indians were still talking to a lot of teams following the Bauer deal. So the possibility of more moves exists.
Kipnis, meawhile, said the players that remain will probably take a moment to regroup.
“Sometimes you don’t even have to,” he said. "Sometimes you take a step back. You want to make the new guys feel as comfortable as possible. Kind of introduce them to what we’re doing here, what we’re trying to accomplish.
"There’s always a trade deadline. It makes you realize there’s a business side of it. It’s not all fun and games all the time. Sometimes a guy you may go to breakfast, lunch and dinner with seven days a week is out of your life forever pretty much. It happens in the minor leagues. It happens with other guys’ careers. It just happens.
“I think we’re getting used to it. At least I have for as long as I’ve been around it. I think we have such a good thing going here that any newcomers will look to jump in immediately because it will be a fun inviting place for them to work.”
But how does a contender deal with losing a pitcher who many felt was the ace of the staff?
“The front office has earned our trust enough not to just second guess any move they make,” said Kipnis. "It’s tough. You consider him No.1, I guarantee you someone else considers Shane Bieber our No.1. Someone else considers Mike Clevinger our No.1.
"That’s the value in having that much starting pitching depth where you might be able to take a shot and fill in some other spots. They knew that was our strong point and it would probably give us our biggest return. I’m guessing that’s what’s happened here.
“You’ll miss him pitching for you every fifth day because he’s a damn good pitcher. But at the same time we’ve always gone with the motto next guy up. Some guy will take the ball every fifth day and do his job.”
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https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/07/cleveland-indians-jason-kipnis-on-trevor-bauer-trade-youre-losing-a-damn-good-pitcher.html
2019-07-31 13:19:00Z
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