Trevor Bauer slams MLB culture for hindering Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Fernando Tatis Jr.'s online branding

Trevor Bauer blamed MLB culture for its reluctant growth on social media as compared to other sports. Among all American sports, including NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL and MLS, MLB and NHL's social media presence can be deemed as some of the lowest in terms of engagement and fanfare.

Some of the stars in football and basketball playing in the NFL and NBA are well known in the world, whereas some of the biggest names in the MLB, like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and Fernando Tatis Jr., aren't much known relatively, the host of "The Wealthy Way" podcast, Ryan Pineda argued Wednesday.

"Who are the most famous guys internationally? And you’ve got more followers than basically everyone except Ohtani," Pineda said.

"How’s that even possible? You’re not even in the game with these guys the last couple of years. Trout, Harper, Tatis—all these guys—they still don’t have the same level of interaction or fame as a social media guy."

Bauer, who made an appearance in the episode, seconded that thought. He pointed out the stark difference in perception between baseball players who pursue off-field interests and those in other sports. Bauer said (19:05 onwards):

"I think the culture of baseball discourages it, you know? Like, if you do anything outside of baseball, you're somehow seen as not focused on the game. You were doing real estate when you were playing; I'm doing business.

"But if you post anything on social media, people assume you're not focused. Then the manager will talk to you. There’s one media director for the entire organization, so if you’re on social media and say something dumb or do something that raises questions, it makes their job harder."

He continued:

"As a result, it’s easier for them to tell the organization, ‘Hey, we don’t post on social. Don’t post on nights you have a game, don’t do this, don’t say that,’ and so on."

Bauer pointed to organizations like UFC and WWE as models for fostering player personalities and boosting entertainment value.

"UFC is the gold standard right now in terms of building personalities, entertainment value, and promotion," he said. "You can learn so much from them."

Comparing social media following of MLB stars like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani to top NBA, NFL stars

When taking a head count, the top three most followed baseball players in MLB currently are Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout and Bryce Harper.

The Japanese two-way star has over 8.8 million followers on Instagram. This is thanks to his immense popularity both in Japan and the US. The second player on the list is Mike Trout, who is followed by 2.2 million followers on Instagram. Harper comes third on the list with 1.8 million followers.

In comparison, the biggest name in basketball, LeBron James, is followed by a whopping 159.0 million users on Instagram. That's easily over 16 times to that of Ohtani's following.

Even in the NFL, one of the biggest names, retired superstar Tom Brady, has 15.1 million followers on Instagram.

This highlights how baseball has lacked in its online presence whereas other sports have thrived in the new age of social media.