Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer takes a break during a game against the San Francisco Giants on May 21, 2021 in San Francisco. The Dodgers are cutting ties with the pitcher after his suspension was reduced two weeks ago.
D. Ross Cameron/AP
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D. Ross Cameron/AP
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer takes a break during a game against the San Francisco Giants on May 21, 2021 in San Francisco. The Dodgers are cutting ties with the pitcher after his suspension was reduced two weeks ago.
D. Ross Cameron/AP
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers are cutting ties with pitcher Trevor Bauer, whose unprecedented 324-game suspension over sexual misconduct allegations has been 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 make an unlikely trade or simply release him. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the roster change.
If the 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner is released, Los Angeles would remain responsible for the more than $22.5 million remaining on Bauer’s contract.
“After careful consideration, we have decided that he will no longer be part of our organization,” the Dodgers said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Bauer said in a statement, “After two weeks of conversations surrounding my return to the organization, I met with Dodgers management in Arizona yesterday who told me they wanted me back and pitching for the team this year.
“While I am disappointed with the organization’s decision today, I appreciate the support I have received from the Dodgers clubhouse. I wish the players the best and look forward to competing elsewhere.”
The Dodgers had until Friday to reinstate Bauer on the roster under baseball rules and they didn’t 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 her and sexually abused her in 2021. Bauer maintained he did nothing wrong, saying everything that happened between him and the woman was consensual.
Bauer was never charged with a crime.
The players’ association filed a grievance on Bauer’s behalf, and a three-person panel led by independent arbitrator Martin Scheinman began hearing the case last May.
In a judgment given on February 22, Scheinman upheld a 194-game suspension rather than Manfred’s scheduled 324-game penalty and immediately reinstated Bauer. Scheinman claimed Bauer violated MLB policy and suspended his salary for the first 50 games of 2023, covering part of the time 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, with due process afforded to the accused,” the team statement read.
The team said it fully cooperated with MLB’s investigation and strictly followed the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy.
“Two thorough reviews of all available evidence in this case – one by Commissioner Manfred and the other by a neutral arbitrator – have concluded that Mr. Bauer’s actions warranted the longest active player suspension ever in our history. sport for violating this policy,” the Dodgers said. . .
Bauer joined the hometown Dodgers ahead of the 2021 season on a three-year, $102 million deal. He was 8-5 and 2.59 ERA in 17 games before being furloughed.
In the likelihood of Bauer being released, the MLB players’ association could challenge his release as not in accordance with the uniform player’s contract.
The contract allows the team to terminate 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-class physical condition or to obey the rules of ‘training for the club’ or ‘fails, in the opinion of club management, to demonstrate sufficient competitive skill or aptitude to qualify or continue as a member of the club team.’
In February 2022, Los Angeles prosecutors decided not to indict Bauer for allegedly beating and sexually abusing the San Diego woman because they said they were unable to prove his charges beyond any 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 specifically identify people who say they were sexually assaulted.
Bauer said in a video posted to YouTube after the prosecutor’s ruling that he and the woman had rough sex at his suggestion and followed pre-agreed guidelines. Each encounter ended with a night at his Pasadena home, he said.
“The disturbing acts and behaviors she described just didn’t happen,” he said at the time.
The woman had applied for a restraining order, but a judge denied it. The judge found that Bauer respected the woman’s boundaries when she set them and that he could not know which ones he violated because she did not clearly state them.
Bauer will lose approximately $37.6 million in salary for the last 144 games of last season and the first 50 games of this season, through May 23.
If Bauer is released, another team could sign him for the major league minimum of $720,000, with the Dodgers responsible for the rest of the $22,537,635 he owed.
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