\n2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n
The Dodgers weren’t expecting a decision until sometime in January and were caught off guard when they were informed of it three days before Christmas, learning the results of the ruling about a half-hour before MLB released a statement to the media, a source close to the situation told ESPN. The Dodgers countered with only a short statement that read: “We have just been informed of the arbitrator’s ruling and will comment as soon as practical.”<\/p>\n
Bauer’s legal team — consisting of Jon Fetterolf, Shawn Holley and Rachel Luba — also put out a statement, writing: “While we are pleased that Mr. Bauer has been reinstated immediately, we disagree that any discipline should have been imposed. That said, Mr. Bauer looks forward to his return to the field, where his goal remains to help his team win a World Series.”<\/p>\n
Bauer is entering the final year of a three-year, $102 million contract he signed with the Dodgers in February 2021. He will have lost $37.5 million of that contract through his suspension. The Dodgers saved about $ 28 million of his salary in 2022 and will save about $ 9.5 million in 2023, a circumstance that could allow them to dip below the luxury-tax threshold. Bauer’s remaining $22.5 million salary will be guaranteed even if the Dodgers release him.<\/p>\n
Despite the reduction, Bauer’s suspension stands as the longest in the seven-plus years of a domestic violence policy that was jointly agreed to by MLB and the MLB Players Association in 2015.<\/p>\n
“While we believe a longer suspension was warranted, MLB will abide by the neutral arbitrator’s decision, which upholds baseball’s longest-ever active player suspension for sexual assault or domestic violence,” MLB wrote in its statement Thursday. “We understand this process was difficult for the witnesses involved and we thank them for their participation. Due to the collectively bargained confidentiality provisions of the joint program, we are unable to provide further details at this time.”<\/p>\n
Bauer, the 31-year-old former Cy Young Award winner, has been facing sexual assault ever since a San Diego woman obtained a temporary restraining order against him near the end of June 2021. Bauer disputed her and remains in litigation with the woman, whom ESPN has chosen not to name. Two women from Ohio made similar assault, which Bauer to The Washington Post and his legal team have also disputed.<\/p>\n
The LA District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Bauer in February, but MLB handed him a 324-game suspension on April 29, twice longer than the previous longest suspension under its policy. Bauer then became the first player to appeal, triggering a prolonged process in which a three-person panel — consisting of one rep from MLB, another from the MLBPA and Sheinman, appointed from both parties — reviews findings and interviews witnesses to determine whether to uphold, reduce or throw out a suspension.<\/p>\n
The subsequent grievance hearing began May 23, playing out in spurts until the end of December. The San Diego woman tested three separate times, a source with knowledge of the situation said. One of the Ohio women also tested but the other backed out, according to the Post.<\/p>\n
Bauer hasn’t pitched since June 20, 2021. The following day, the then-27-year-old San Diego woman filed a request for a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) in which she alleged that Bauer assaulted her over the course of two sexual encounters at his Pasadena, California, home in April and May of that year. The woman alleged that he choked her unconscious on multiple occasions, repeatedly scratched and punched her throughout her body, sodomized her without consent and left her with injuries that warranted a trip to the emergency room after rough sex. Bauer and his attorneys, Fetterolf and Luba, denied thedulent, calling them “fraulet” and “baseless” in an initial statement.<\/p>\n
MLB first placed Bauer on administrative leave on July 2, 2021, triggering an investigation. After that, the two other women from Ohio made similar to the Post. In August 2021, a woman told the Post she sought a DVRO in June 2020 and accused him of choking and striking her without consent during sex and sending threatening messages. That woman, the Post reported, dismissed her order six weeks later after Bauer’s attorneys threatened legal action. The second woman allegedly to the Post that Bauer choked her unconscious consent on multiple occasions dating back to 2013.<\/p>\n
MLB said it conducted “an extensive investigation” into Bauer’s off-field conduct but did not disclose specifics of its findings, nor did it reveal how many women made assault against him. Bauer, meanwhile, has denied wrongdoing, posting long threads through his Twitter account — some of them containing screenshots of private text messages – in an effort to show consent after each of the three women’s accusations. After the LA County District Attorney’s Office declined to file criminal charges in February 2022, Bauer released a seven-minute video on YouTube in which he categorically denied the San Diego woman’s version of events.<\/p>\n
The DA’s Office, ruling six months after an LA judge denied the San Diego woman a permanent restraining order, rejected charges of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, sodomy of an unconscious person and domestic violence. But MLB, which, according to sources, heard similar from multiple women, suspended him three months later.<\/p>\n
Prior to Bauer, 15 players had been suspended under the domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy that was introduced in August 2015. The policy, jointly agreed to with the MLB Players Association, grants MLB commissioner Rob Manfred the autonomy to suspend players even if they are not charged with a crime and does not require him to meet the proof-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt threshold required by the country’s law enforcement. Those suspensions — not counting that of former reliever Felipe Vazquez, who’s serving a jail sentence for sexual assault of a minor — have ranged from 15 to 162 games and were the result of negotiated settlements in which players waived their right to appeal. Bauer is the first of those players with more than one publicly known accuser.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers canceled Bauer’s scheduled bobblehead night and removed his merchandise from their stores shortly after MLB first placed him on administrative leave in the summer of 2021, but they have barely commented on his situation publicly. Uncertainty over the arbitrator’s decision was seen as a primary reason the Dodgers, hesitant to exceed the luxury-tax threshold for a third consecutive year, mostly stayed away from star free agents this offseason.<\/p>\n
In recent months, Bauer has continued to populate his YouTube channel with videos of him taking part in lively bullpen sessions and providing pitching tips. He put out a tweet moments after the arbitrator’s ruling became public Thursday:<\/p>\n