Major League Baseball has suspended Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer for two full seasons (324 games) without pay, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced Friday.
Bauer’s suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy is effective immediately, MLB said in a statement.
The ban comes after a probe into the Dodgers pitcher by the league’s department of investigations after a woman came forward in June 2021 and said that the baseball star had punched and choked her during sex at his Padadena, Calif., home.
Bauer is appealing MLB’s decision. If Bauer is unsuccessful in his appeal, he’ll lose about $60 million in salary from the 3-year, $102 million free-agent deal he signed with the Dodgers in February 2021.
His appeal is the first under the joint MLB-players’ union domestic violence policy. The previous 15 suspensions under the policy were a result of negotiated settlements.
“In the strongest possible terms, I deny committing any violation of the league’s domestic violence & sexual assault policy,” the 2020 Cy Young winner wrote on Twitter shortly after the ban was announced. “I am appealing this action and expect to prevail.
“As we have throughout this process, my representatives & I respect the confidentiality of the proceedings.”
He has denied the woman’s claims and has maintained that the sex was consensual. The woman said that Bauer choked her unconscious, rendering her unable to consent.
“I did not consent to bruises all over my body that sent me to the hospital,” she testified in court, “and having that done to me while I was unconscious.”
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office opted not to charge Bauer with a crime. Bauer sued his accuser and one of her lawyers in federal court earlier this week. The litigious pitcher is also suing media outlets Deadspin and The Athletic — plus writers at both sites — for defamation over their coverage of the case. Bauer alleges that former Athletic reporter Molly Knight knew his accuser did not suffer a fractured skull and intentionally left that out of her story, and Deadspin then “pushed forward with the false narrative of a skull fracture.”
Last year, the Washington Post reported that another woman, in Ohio, obtained an order of protection against Bauer after accusing him of similar behavior. In the request for the order, the woman said that Bauer punched and choked her during sex without her consent. She produced copies of messages that she said were threats from Bauer.
“I don’t feel like spending time in jail for killing someone,” one message said, “And that’s what would happen if I saw you again.”
Bauer and his representatives denied the woman’s claims and suggested her evidence was fabricated. She eventually dropped the order.
Bauer last pitched on June 28, 2021 and has been on leave since while MLB conducted its investigation, with the paid leave getting extended repeatedly, sometimes on a week-to-week basis. The two-year unpaid ban is on top of the games he has already missed.
– With The Associated Press
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