Indians, Reds & Padres Consummate Trade With Bauer, Puig & Reyes

On Tuesday night, the Cleveland Indians dealt starting pitcher Trevor Bauer to the Cleveland Indians for outfielder Yasiel Puig in a transaction which also involved the San Diego Padres. The Friars sent outfielder Franmil Reyes, utility man Victor Nova and southpaw Logan Allen to the Indians while sending minor league outfielder Taylor Trammell to Cincinnati.

Although the Indians have the first berth in the AL Wild Card and are only three games back of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central, the Tribe has discussed dealing Bauer for some time. Bauer wrote his ticket out of Cleveland when he threw the baseball over the centerfield wall after a rough outing on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals. This angered Indians manager Terry Francona. Bauer was forced to publicly apologize to his teammates, the organization and the fans and, to boot, fined an undisclosed amount of money for the incident. In 24 starts for the Indians this season, Bauer was 9-8 with a 3.79 ERA and led the AL in innings pitched with 156 2/3. In 2018, Bauer earned his first AL All-Star appearance with a 12-6 record and a 2.21 ERA in 27 starts. There is a question of whether Bauer will actually pitch for the last place Reds. He could potentially be moved between now and the trade deadline tomorrow afternoon at 5 p.m. EST.

Bauer might no longer be the Indians' problem, but Puig sure is. As the trade was completed, Puig was at the center of a pier-six brawl between the Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates, their second brawl of the season. Puig was at the center of the first brawl in April. Puig will undoubtedly be suspended and thus delay his debut across state. Entering tonight, Puig was hitting .255 with 22 HR and 60 RBIs in 99 games with the Reds. Puig was acquired in an off-season deal from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

However, any suspension time for Puig will be offset by Reyes who in his second year in the bigs has comparable stats to Puig. Entering tonight, Reyes was hitting .253 with 27 HR and 46 RBI in 98 games in San Diego. Puig and Reyes will give the Tribe some much needed power. Still, it would be nice if they got another starting pitcher back. Could that be Noah Syndergaard of the Mets or Detroit's Matthew Boyd? Or even Madison Bumgarner? The Tribe might not be done at the trading post just yet. Only 16 hours to go.