Will Trevor Bauer be able to avoid making this accusation stick?

Trevor Bauer doesn’t come across as the most sympathetic figure, especially in Mets circles, as their very generous efforts to sign him during the offseason were spurned in favor of his hometown Dodgers.

But for Bauer to become the only public target of MLB’s new push to crack down on ball-doctoring substances isn’t fair to him, nor is the somewhat cloak-and-dagger methodology being employed to root out the alleged sticky-substance abusers.

During Wednesday’s Dodgers-A’s game in which Bauer struck out 10 in 6 2/3 innings, an Oakland radio broadcaster noticed that one of the baseballs thrown by Bauer in the first inning was removed for inspection. The following day, The Athletic reported that a number of those balls were collected, and a source said they "had visible markings and were sticky" before being sent to the MLB offices for further inspection.

That report enraged Bauer and his agent, Rachel Luba, as both took to Twitter to air their grievances. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came to the defense of Bauer, the sport’s highest-salaried player at $40 million this year, and expressed concern about a continued witch hunt over the baseballs.

"My understanding is that umpires collect baseball from all pitchers, and balls that were in play, to collect samples," Roberts told reporters before Friday’s game against the Nationals. "I just hope that our player is not singled out. That’s the one thing I want to guard against."

When Roberts was asked in that interview if he believes Bauer is coming under that extra scrutiny, he replied, "At this point, yeah. That’s the only name I heard floating around."

Bauer, a big disciple of analytics, already has the reputation of consulting whatever technological edge he can find — but within the rules. He also has spoken out against pitchers using foreign substances, and in 2018, while he was with Cleveland, he accused the Astros’ entire staff of doctoring the baseballs.

A year later, it came out that the Astros indeed were cheating, but with their hitters gathering signs through in-game video and relaying pitches by banging on a dugout trash can.

Less than two weeks before the start of the regular season, MLB announced that it would step up the enforcement of monitoring the baseballs, a time frame that didn’t give much warning to would-be offenders.

While the umpires always are wary of balls being scuffed or darkened with a foreign substance — pine tar often comes into play — the league also is using compliance officers at the stadiums and spin-rate data to identify suspicious jumps that could be attributed to something sticky. An illegally enhanced grip can create a higher spin rate and increase a pitch’s movement.

"It’s my understanding that if the umpire feels like a ball is more tacky than usual, they’ll throw it aside and keep it for someone to study it," Mets acting general manager Zack Scott said Saturday. "I don’t know what kind of stuff is put on the baseball necessarily, but that’s my understanding on how they’ll take it on a case-by-case basis."

Previously, Rule 6.02 (c) was enforced by the umpires, the front line of the league’s defense, but there was plenty of gray area. Even though the practice of using something extra on the baseballs to get a better grip is widespread — especially during the colder spring months — teams were reluctant to blow the whistle on each other out of fear that the accusing club then would be called out as well. Glass houses and all that.

For that reason, penalties for ball-doctoring have been rare. The most egregious in recent memory was in 2014, when the Yankees’ Michael Pineda had a pine tar shmear on the back of his neck that was impossible for the Red Sox to ignore. When the Sox brought it to the umpire’s attention, Pineda was ejected and later was suspended for 10 games.

Those disciplinary measures were fairly straightforward. The umpires first examined the ball, then the pitcher’s hands, forearms, cap, glove or any other suspicious area for a substance. But under these new measures, it’s unclear how these cases will be adjudicated. Considering that hitters use pine tar and the tacky goo is everywhere — bat handles, helmets, batting gloves --- how can MLB prove a pitcher applied a substance himself?

Bauer appears to be the first high-profile pitcher to come under the microscope in this matter, but he won’t be the last. And if penalties do start being issued, the fallout could be messy.

A potential solution, however, should be fairly simple. Either apply a tacky substance to the baseballs during the manufacturing process or create an MLB-approved formula for pitchers to use, much like a rosin bag, that could cut down the hunt for banned substances. Pitchers will always seek an edge regardless, but that might help to curb the illegal behavior.

Robo-umps now!

MLB’s implementation of an automated strike zone, enforced by the same tracking technology already in use by teams and the league for just about everything else, can’t come soon enough.

It’s being tested this year at the low Class A level, so we assume it won’t be too long a wait to jump a few more rungs to the top.

That process took on more urgency this week when Michael Conforto was hit by a pitch in the strike zone, wrongly delivering the Mets’ 3-2 victory over the Marlins. Plate umpire Ron Kulpa later admitted his mistake.

Kulpa actually got the call right when he began to signal that Conforto had been caught looking at the third strike. But in a split-second, and once Conforto pleaded his case, Kulpa changed his mind.

That wouldn’t happen with the computerized system — a strike is a strike, whether the pitch hits the batter or not — and it’s easy enough to check, too.

The other loophole in Thursday’s outcome was the fact that Kulpa’s call wasn’t reviewable. The umpiring crew did check the video to confirm that Conforto’s elbow pad was struck by the ball, but it could not use the review to place where the pitch was or determine Conforto’s intent to get in its path.

Based on the controversial play that ended the Mets-Marlins game, you can expect MLB to reexamine that policy in the future. Kulpa now is likely to be in favor of making such a change.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.