liked the post almost immediately<\/a>.<\/p>\nBauer has denied denied of sexual assault levied by three women, and he has not been charged with a crime. Commissioner Rob Manfred is empowered to suspend players for violating the policy, even in the absence of criminal charges. An independent arbitrator ruled Dec. 22 that the league had met the burden of proof in showing Bauer violated the policy.<\/p>\n
The arbitrator reinstated Bauer \u2014 reducing the suspension from 324 to 194 games \u2014 forcing the Dodgers to decide whether to keep him or cut him. Neither the league’s evidence nor the arbitrator’s explanation has been made public, although two of his accusers reportedly tested against him during an appeal process that took seven months.<\/p>\n
David Cone, the former Cy Young Award winner and five-time World Series champion, called the situation a \u201cPR nightmare.\u201d Cone, the analyst on ESPN’s flagship \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d broadcast, explained why this week on his \u201cToeing the Slab\u201d podcast. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn the pitching side, he’s a savant. He was ahead of the curve in terms of analytics, in terms of how to train,\u201d Cone said. \u201cOn the off-the-field stuff and what allegedly happened, that is poison right now. I don’t know how you get past that.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Dodgers’ decision to move past Bauer sent a strong message to both fans and professional athletes, according to Patti Giggins, the executive director of Peace over Violence, a Los Angeles-based sexual assault and domestic violence agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s been quite a change in the sports world \u2014 teams are taking these issues more seriously in the last few years \u2014 and that is so important,\u201d said Giggins, who has been with the organization for 38 years. \u201cJust because it’s not a criminal case does not mean someone was not victimized. There are consequences to these words, and now [the Dodgers] are going to drop him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many fans follow their teams, and they root for players and put them on a pedestal, so in a case like this, and I’m not judging guilt or innocence, the message to other players and fans is that how you treat each other, how you treat the people you date, how you treat your wives and husbands, matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a February 2021 introductory news conference, the Dodgers staged a grand homecoming for Bauer, the former Newhall Hart High and UCLA star and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n
Bauer and Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, both said that day Bauer had learned from what each called \u201cpast mistakes\u201d amid of using social media to harass women, spread conspiracy and use insensitive language.<\/p>\n
Friedman said he hoped that \u201csome trust and credibility has been built up in terms of the research that we do on players and the vetting process we go through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Bauer: \u201cUltimately I’m here to be a positive impact on anyone that I can be, both in the community, in the clubhouse, on the field, at the stadium, whatever the case is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
<\/source><\/picture>\n\n
Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer delivers against the Arizona Diamondbacks in June 2021.<\/p>\n
(Ross D. Franklin \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Four months later, Bauer had started 17 games for the Dodgers, going 8-5 with a 2.59 earned-run average. On June 28, he was the winning pitcher in the Dodgers’ 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants. He would not pitch for the Dodgers again.<\/p>\n
The next day, a San Diego woman who had met Bauer online requested a permanent restraining order against him, providing medical records that showed she was diagnosed with \u201cassault by manual strangulation\u201d and \u201cacute head injury\u201d after the second of two sexual encounters with him. <\/p>\n
The restraining order was denied by a judge who ruled Bauer posed no future threat to the woman. Bauer maintains the sex was rough but consensual and the woman was not visibly injured when she left his home after the encounter.<\/p>\n
The league put him on investigative leave and later suspended him. Bauer has sued six for defamation, including the San Diego woman, who parties by suing him back and alleging assault and sexual battery.<\/p>\n
On Friday, just before the Dodgers made their announcement, Bauer denied her in a court filing in which he said her suit \u201cwas not filed … in good faith with cause.\u201d He also denied her accounts of sexual misconduct but said \u201che admits he choked [her] at her request and with her consent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bauer’s filing Friday met a deadline set by the court, unrelated to the Dodgers’ deadline.<\/p>\n
The league would continue to include Bauer’s salary in determining the Dodgers’ payroll for purposes of the luxury tax, which could make the team liable for salary and tax payments for players acquired to fortify the 2023 roster. The Dodgers had hoped to keep their payroll low enough to avoid tax payments this year.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers could try to avoid paying Bauer by claiming he violated a provision of standard contract language that requires him to \u201cconform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship.\u201d That likely would trigger a grievance.<\/p>\n
In 2004, after pitcher Denny Neagle was cited on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute, the Colorado Rockies terminated his contract, citing that contract language.<\/p>\n
Neagle filed a grievance. In 2005, he and the Rockies reached a settlement under which he was paid roughly $16 million of the $19.5 million left on his contract, according to the Denver Post. In 2006, Neagle pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of \u201cpatronizing a prostitute\u201d and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n