Trevor Bauer makes an unwelcome seizure in the playoff spotlight.

They paid him millions not to pitch. They paid millions more in exchange for his replacement. They did not allow him to interfere with their defense of their World Series championship.

And, again, the Dodgers cannot free themselves from Trevor Bauer.

He won’t let them.

The banned pitcher returned to the public sphere Tuesday afternoon with a back cap and shoulder-length hair.

In a 36-second video he uploaded to his once-ubiquitous social media accounts, Bauer casually addressed the sexual assault allegations that led to a paid administrative leave which now enters its fourth month. He has vaguely promised to deliver “baseball content” in the coming weeks.

Just as he was moving away from public consciousness. Just when the Dodgers were about to start their playoffs.

Which was almost certainly the point.

The attention seeker deprived of attention demanded attention.

What a narcissist. How selfish. How Trevor Bauer.

The hypocrisy was astounding.

When Bauer agreed last month to extend his paid administrative leave during the playoffs, his agents released a statement saying he did so “in good faith and in an effort to minimize any distraction for the team. organization of the Dodgers and his teammates. ”Yet here he was creating a spectacle as the team took to the field for their final practice before Wednesday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Suddenly, the Dodgers were no longer the winners of 106 games. They weren’t the defending World Series champions.

It was the fools who signed a known cowardly cannon, against which the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is still considering criminal charges.

The Dodgers have cleverly avoided discussing Bauer since his ban in early summer, but uniformed and non-uniformed staff sparked waves of profanity on Tuesday afternoon when asked about the video of Bauer.

“Are you [kidding] me? ”asked someone from the Dodgers.

This particular person had not yet watched the video. Imagine if that person had seen the footage, which showed Bauer leisurely walking down a street.

“Hey, guys,” Bauer said. “I know you haven’t heard from me in a while. I look forward to talking about false and misleading claims in the future. But for now, here’s what I’m able to share with you: A legal issue has been resolved. The judge’s detailed decision is available and speaks for itself.

On August 19, a judge dissolved a restraining order against Bauer that had been sought by a woman accusing him of sexual assault.

The woman’s allegations were investigated by the Pasadena Police Department, which turned over its case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on August 27. Bauer is also under investigation by Major League Baseball, which is empowered under a collectively negotiated domestic violence policy to impose an unpaid suspension even if criminal charges are not filed.

“There is a pending case, which I am unable to discuss at the moment,” Bauer said in his video. “That being said, I will be rolling out baseball content here throughout the playoffs.”

In other words, it won’t be Bauer’s last attempt to shift public attention from the Dodgers to himself.

Once again, the hypocrisy was striking, as Bauer went on to say, “This is a channel that aims to celebrate baseball culture and to entertain. And I love to take you with me on this ride. So I’ll see you all in a video here soon.

Celebrate? Reminding fans that one of the sport’s iconic franchises employs someone accused of engaging in such violent sexual behavior that he sent a woman to the hospital?

Bauer was widely considered deaf even before the allegations surfaced. What it lacks here is that the court of public opinion does not operate according to the same rules as the judicial system.

Avoiding prosecution will not necessarily win over the public. He will also have to convincingly prove that the alleged violence did not take place, that he does not like hitting and suffocating women.

Acquiring before the trade deadline, Max Scherzer, who will debut against the Cardinals, was more than a Cy Young Award-level staff ace for the Dodgers over the past two months. He provided a blanket, the perfect band-aid for the front office mistake in signing Bauer. Scherzer’s dominance eclipsed why it was necessary to trade for him in the first place.

What the Dodgers learned on the eve of their opening playoff game is that Bauer is a mistake that cannot be covered up. With every round they advance to the playoffs, Bauer profiles himself as a potential intruder, offering unsolicited commentary and making it harder for his nominal teammates to disassociate themselves from him.