Major League Baseball announced on Friday the removal of 324 games for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, the equivalent of two full seasons, making him the harshest punishment imposed under the sport’s domestic violence policy.
Bauer immediately issued a statement announcing his appeal against the removal, making him the first player to appeal the penalty through MLB’s domestic violence policy.
“In the strongest sense, I deny having committed any violation of the League’s policy on domestic violence and sexual assault,” Bauer said in a statement. I appeal this action and expect it to prevail. As during this process, my representatives and I respect the confidentiality of the proceedings. “
Bauer, 31, is accused of sexually assaulting a San Diego woman who demanded a restraining order and accused him of taking rough sex too far during two meetings last April and May. A Los Angeles judge dismissed the woman’s permanent restraining order in August, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office declined to file criminal charges in February.
Bauer joined the Dodgers on a three-year, $ 102 million contract in February 2021 after winning the National Young’s Cy Young Award during the COVID-19 redundancies in the 2020 season. He spent the last 81 games of the regular season in administrative. league, plus another 18 to start the 2022 season. But his removal from 324 games does not begin until Friday, which means he does not receive credit for previous service.
Bauer’s removal, if he survives the appeal process, will continue until the 19th game of the 2024 season, by which time his three-year contract with the Dodgers will expire. The Dodgers will not pay Bauer until he is punished.
MLB announced the suspension with a brief statement, which did not provide details of its findings, adding: “Under the terms of the policy, the Commissioner’s Office will not issue any additional statements at this time.”
The Dodgers, who are at home against the Detroit Tigers this weekend, released the following statement:
“Today we were informed that MLB has completed its investigation into the allegations against Trevor Bauer and the Commissioner has issued his decision on discipline. Dodgers takes all allegations of this nature very seriously and does not justify or justify any action of domestic or sexual violence. We have fully cooperated with the MLB investigation since its inception and fully support the MLB’s joint policy on domestic violence, sexual violence and violence against children, as well as the Commissioner’s enforcement of the rules. We understand that Trevor has the right to appeal the Commissioner’s decision. Therefore, we will not comment further until the process is over. “
Bauer is the 16th player removed since August 2015, when Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association unveiled their joint policy on domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse, which gives MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred the autonomy to remove players. for “just cause”. These removals – not counting former assistant Felipe Vazquez, who is serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl – range from 15 to 162 games and are the result of negotiated agreements in which players are denied their right to appeal. .
Bauer last released on June 28 last year. The next day, a 27-year-old woman applied for a restraining order for domestic violence, detailing allegations that Bauer assaulted her during two sexual encounters at his home in Pasadena, California, in April and May. In a statement, the woman – whom ESPN chose not to name – said Bauer had gone too far by rough sex by mutual consent, claiming he had knocked her unconscious many times, repeatedly scratched her and punched her all over her body, sodomized her without consent and left her with injuries that necessitated a trip to the emergency department.
Bauer and his lawyers, John Faterolf and Rachel Luba, have consistently denied the allegations, calling them “fraudulent” and “baseless” in an initial statement.
Bauer was originally released on administrative leave, a means by which players receive their full pay but are not allowed to visit Premier League facilities while investigations continue on July 2. Five days later, the Dodgers canceled Bauer’s scheduled night and removed his goods from his stores, saying the team “does not think it is appropriate while the investigation continues.”
At the end of a four-day hearing on August 19, Los Angeles Supreme Court Judge Diana Gould-Saltman overturned the interim restraining order, ruling that Bauer did not pose a permanent threat to the woman and that her injuries were not the result of anything. during the meeting, pointing to texts from the woman in which she asked to be strangled.
The judge said that “the injuries, as shown in the photos, are terrible”, but added: “If she set limits and he exceeded them, this case would be clear. However, it set limits without taking into account all the consequences, and the defendant did not exceed the limits set by the petitioner. “
Days before the hearing began, The Washington Post published a story about a second Ohio woman who requested a temporary restraining order against Bauer in June 2020 and also accused him of assault. The woman rejected the order six weeks later after Bauer’s lawyers threatened to sue, according to the report. The Post’s story included photos showing injuries allegedly inflicted by Bauer, as well as threatening reports, one alleging that Bauer wrote: “I don’t want to spend time in prison killing someone . And that would happen if I saw you again. “
Bauer’s lawyers called the woman’s allegations of physical violence “outright false” and questioned the validity of the photos and reports.
The Pasadena Police Department closed its investigation into Bauer’s incident with the San Diego woman on August 27, sending the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which spent the next five months reviewing the case before declaring on February 8 that they would not prosecute criminal charges. The district attorney’s office has reviewed and dismissed allegations of assault that could have caused grievous bodily harm and sodomy to an unconscious man during the first sexual encounter between Bauer and the woman on April 22 and domestic violence during the second sexual intercourse on May 16. .
As part of its denial, the District Attorney’s Office wrote: “After a thorough review of all available evidence, including injunction proceedings, testimony and physical evidence, people are unable to prove the relevant allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Bauer immediately posted a seven-minute video on YouTube outlining his version of events, saying at one point: “I never hit this woman in the face. I never hit her in the vagina. I never scratched her face. I had anal sex with her or I sodomized her in any way. I never attacked her in any way, at any time, and although we had rough sex by mutual consent, the embarrassing actions and behaviors she described simply did not happen. “
The woman, who provided photos and medical records as part of her declaration to limit domestic violence, said she woke up the morning after her second sexual intercourse with two black eyes, a swollen jaw and cheekbones, and dark red scratches on her right side. face, bruised gums, a lump on the side of her head, a split upper lip, black bruises on the upper part of the vagina and many bruises on her right cheek.
In the last two months, while MLB continued its investigation, Bauer’s lawyers have filed defamation lawsuits against two media companies, claiming that Deadspin knowingly published false information in its coverage of allegations of sexual violence and that The Athletic was running a “malicious campaign and Bauer brake.
Bauer’s lawyers also called on the Pasadena Police Department for missing telephone records of his prosecutor, claiming in a court file that “the requested materials will further reveal the petitioner’s plan to ruin the defendant’s reputation and career and earn a large salary by sending false and misleading allegations in her petition. “
But Gould-Saltman ruled in a hearing on April 4 that Bauer would not be aware of the phone recordings, saying his lawyers had not made the right request and that she would still be skeptical of an argument the recordings would help show the woman. has misled the trial and has to pay his lawyer’s fee.
On Monday, Bauer’s lawyers filed a defamation and tort case against the woman in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit alleges that she “fabricated allegations of sexual assault”, “prosecutes false criminal and civil acts”, “makes false and malicious statements” and “generates media blitz based on her lies” in an attempt to “destroy” the reputation of Bauer, “drew attention to himself” and “made millions of dollars.”
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