MLB roundup: Bauer's finger injury could lead to messy situation for umpires

Buster OlneyOct 15, 2016, 11:49 AM ET

What the Cleveland Indians hope for is that Trevor Bauer's recovery from his drone-repair injury doesn't necessarily follow the same timeline as most drone-repair injuries.

Which is to say they hope the right-hander will be able to pitch a professional baseball game Monday -- and a playoff game at that, Game 3 of the American League Championship Series -- with stitches on the back of his right pinkie finger. But nobody knows for sure whether this is possible, and one person who has seen the cut has his doubts: "I don't know he'll be able to pitch like that."

Bauer played catch Friday (before reporters arrived at the ballpark) and reported to the Indians that he felt OK, and that his gash -- which doesn't directly impact his touch on the baseball -- didn't affect his ability to throw or manipulate the baseball. But the wording of the Indians' news release announcing that Bauer's start in this playoff will be moved back was properly concise: Bauer is scheduled -- note the italics -- to pitch Game 3.

The long-standing rule is that pitchers are not allowed to work with any kind of foreign substance on their hands. Stitches are acceptable, as an umpire confirmed Friday, but according to the sport's regulations, there can be no Band-Aid, super glue or the goop that boxing trainers wipe on the eyebrows and eyelids of their fighters to close cuts.

If Bauer's cut opens during the game and he starts to bleed heavily on the baseballs, the umpires will be forced into a difficult situation, to assess Bauer's hand.

But logic suggests that the umpires might want to give Bauer and the Indians a lot of latitude in treating the cut during the game, even if it means ignoring whatever substance might be covering the wound, because nobody should want to open the foreign-substance Pandora's box -- a decision that could have enormous ripples beyond any game pitched by Bauer -- as baseball's postseason plays out.

It's an open secret that in this era, just about all pitchers use foreign substances, with almost all of them deploying sunscreen or something similar in the same manner.

A lot of pitchers shave the hair off the forearm of their gloved hand and cover that shorn area just below their wrist with sunscreen or something like it, and as a pitcher receives a new baseball, you will see him quickly wrap his pitching hand around that wrist in order to add substance to the pitching hand. For almost all pitchers, the reason for this is to help with their grip. This has become common operating procedure for a generation of pitchers on all teams, and everybody in the sport -- managers, players, umpires -- has essentially operated with a gentlemen's agreement that nobody will complain about the foreign substances. No manager asks the umpires to check the hands, glove and wrists of pitchers, because he knows he'd be putting his own pitchers in peril.

But because the rule hasn't been rewritten to reflect the current reality, these postseason games are filled with pitchers who are technically in violation of the foreign-substance regulation and at risk for being ejected and suspended. The precedents are on the books, from Jay Howell in the 1988 playoffs to Michael Pineda's pine-tar gob on his neck.

That's a lever that could be pulled anytime by any manager, and if any manager or umpire actually followed through and caused a pitcher to be ejected, the conversation about foreign substances would immediately explode nationally, forcing all parties in the sport to answer questions about all of the shiny forearms you see in every game.

For anyone to check Bauer's stitched finger for some kind of ointment -- on a side of his hand that has no contact with the baseball -- would seemingly be a bad move for everyone involved. It would be like state troopers suddenly deciding to lock up any driver caught going 56 in a 55 mph zone.

Josh Tomlin has no problem stepping in for Bauer.

Notables

• On Friday's podcast: Justin Havens, Karl Ravech and Alex Cora examine some of the pivotal decisions made in the midst of Game 5 of the Division Series between the Nationals and Dodgers, with a look-ahead to the Blue Jays-Indians series; and a big day in history for Tommy Agee and Chris Chambliss.

And here's Thursday's Scoreboard podcast, with the voices and sounds from baseball on Thursday, including Clayton Kershaw, Dave Roberts, Justin Turner, Dusty Baker, John Gibbons, Terry Francona and others.

• Thomas Boswell writes about how Nationals fans should process another year of playoff frustration.

• What Keith Law wrote about Tim Tebow's baseball skills is what a lot of evaluators are saying privately. The evaluations of Tebow are blunt, writes Kristie Ackert.

Tebow is fitting in well with teammates.