LOS ANGELES –
The Los Angeles Dodgers are cutting ties with pitcher Trevor Bauer, whose unprecedented 324-game ban on sexual misconduct charges was reduced two weeks ago, allowing him to resume his career with the start of the new season.
A person familiar with the situation said Friday that the 31-year-old right-hander has been designated for assignment, meaning the Dodgers have seven days to complete an unlikely trade or simply release him. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the roster move.
If the 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner is released, Los Angeles would remain responsible for more than $22.5 million remaining on Bauer’s contract.
“After careful consideration, we have decided that he will no longer be a part of our organization,” the Dodgers said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Bauer said in a statement: “After two weeks of talking about my return to the organization, yesterday I met with Dodgers management in Arizona who told me they want me to come back and play for the team this year.
“While I am disappointed in the organization’s decision today, I appreciate the outpouring of support I have received from the Dodgers clubhouse.” I wish the players all the best and look forward to competing elsewhere.”
The Dodgers had until Friday to reinstate Bauer under baseball rules, and they did not announce their decision until late afternoon. The team has rarely commented on the controversial case since Bauer was placed on paid administrative leave in July 2021.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred suspended Bauer for 324 games for violating the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy after a San Diego woman said he beat and sexually assaulted her in 2021. Bauer claims he did not nothing wrong by saying that everything that happened between him and the woman was consensual.
Bauer has never been charged with a crime.
The players’ association filed a complaint on Bauer’s behalf, and a three-person panel headed by independent arbitrator Martin Scheinman began hearing the case last May.
In a Dec. 22 ruling, Scheinman upheld the 194-game suspension instead of Manfred’s 324-game suspension and immediately reinstated Bauer. Scheinman confirmed that Bauer violated MLB policy and deferred pay for the first 50 games of 2023, covering a portion of the period the pitcher was on paid leave in 2021 and `22.
“The Dodgers organization believes that allegations of sexual assault or domestic violence should be thoroughly investigated and those accused given due process,” the team said in a statement.
The team said it fully cooperated with MLB’s investigation and strictly followed the league’s domestic violence and sexual abuse rules.
“Two thorough reviews of all available evidence in this case — one by Commissioner Manfred and another by a neutral arbitrator — concluded that Mr. Bauer’s actions warranted the longest suspension of an active player in our sport for violations of this policy.” , Dodgers said.
Bauer joined the hometown Dodgers before the 2021 season on a three-year, $102 million contract. He had an 8-5 record and a 2.59 ERA in 17 games before being placed on leave.
If Bauer is likely to be released, the MLB Players Association could challenge his release as a breach of the single player contract.
The contract allows the team to be terminated if the player “fails, refuses or neglects to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship or to maintain himself in first-rate physical condition or to comply with the club’s training rules” or “by in the opinion of the club’s management fails to demonstrate sufficient skill or competitive ability to qualify or continue as a member of the club’s squad.’
In February 2022, Los Angeles prosecutors decided not to charge Bauer with the alleged beating and sexual assault of the San Diego woman because they said they were unable to prove her allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
The woman, who was 27 at the time, said Bauer choked her unconscious, punched her repeatedly and sexually assaulted her during two sexual encounters.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted.
Bauer said in a video posted on YouTube after the prosecutor’s ruling that he and the woman engaged in rough sex at her suggestion and followed the guidelines they agreed to beforehand. Each date ended with her spending the night at his home in Pasadena, he said.
“The disturbing acts and behavior that she described simply did not happen,” he said at the time.
The woman asked for a restraining order, but the judge denied it. The judge found that Bauer respected the woman’s boundaries when the woman set them, and could not have known of the ones he violated because she did not make them clear.
Bauer will forfeit about $37.6 million in salary for the final 144 games of last season and the first 50 games of this season through May 23.
If Bauer is released, another team can sign him for the major league minimum of $720,000, with the Dodgers responsible for the remainder of the $22,537,635 he is owed.
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AP baseball writer Ronald Bloom contributed to this report.
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