I would have waived Mitch White.
Other teams are also afraid to offend the Alphabet Community. The average age of a Major League Baseball fan who attends games is significantly higher than for the other Major pro sports in North America. Almost every stadium in the league has plenty of empty seats at every game, even for teams with good attendance. This is why the pitch clock was introduced, why both Leagues now have a DH, and why extra innings start with a runner on second base.
Games were too damned slow to attract and hold the youth market, with their notoriously short attention spans. Families with young children are reluctant to attend mid week night games, when there is a good possibility that the game won't be completed by 10:30 PM, as there will likely also be considerable additional time spent returning home.
While the Alphabet Community does not represent a large percentage of the attendance for live team sports, anything which offends them also offends the sizable demographic which takes personal offence on their behalf.
It would have been insignificant if Bass had tweeted that he thought the Bud Lite Trans promotion was a tactical error from the Bud suits. Bud Lite is consumed in the back of pickup trucks and in trailer homes, or by anyone who buys the cheapest brand at the store. Alphabet People don't and won't consume the product in any significant quantity; they're much more likely to buy a smaller quantity of a more expensive imported brand.
Bass crossed the line when he incited other people to join the boycott of Budweiser products. Baseball is a Show, and one of the unwritten rules of Show Business is that you do not piss off the folks who pay the bills. Budweiser does a lot of advertising, and a lot of that advertising is during team sports.
I don't think professional team owners care a lot about attracting the Alphabet Community to their events, but they do care a lot about not wanting those same people to publicly voice negative opinions about the sport.
You can't make a strong case, or in my view a correct case for White being released over Bass. Which is why I don't understand the political outrage here - the move made sense from a baseball perspective, or at least was a decision that could be argued either way.
Both sides have tried to use him to argue or validate their politics, when in fact the answer is that he sucked and was the odd man out for baseball reasons at June 8.
The left wrongly exalted in Bass demotion claiming it was a victory for someone that upset them, when really it was about no spot being available for Bass for baseball reasons. The Jays kept him for a while.
The right got angry in Bass demotion thinking it was purely political, when in fact there was no spot open for him for baseball reasons.
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White is younger, cost-controlled, and potentially filled a long reliever role / swingman role that they needed. Can't see how you can say Bass was the right call purely from baseball.
From a pure baseball perspective the right move was this.
1) Recall White on June 8(which they did)
2) DFA Bass on June 8, since you know he will not be claimed due to his salary commitment for 2023 and 2024 (which they did)
3) You are then permitted up to 10 days to figure out what to do with Bass. (recall, release, demote (with his permission))
1 and 2 were the right calls at the time. Regarding #3, the Jays chose to release him several days after he was DFA'd. This is the part that can be debated. But his DFA on June 8, the right baseball move, which was not a release, caused so much attention and controversy, that bringing him back 10 days later was no longer feasable.
