© Geoff Burke | 2021 Jul 1
Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher Trevor Bauer won’t pitch again in 2021, as MLB and the MLBPA agreed to extend his administrative leave an eighth time. ESPN’s Jeff Passan was the first to report the news.
Bauer, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, is under investigation by MLB for sexual assault. He last pitched for the Dodgers on June 27.
A woman accused Bauer of sexual assault, saying he choked her unconscious multiple times, sodomized her without consent and punched her all over her body over the course of two sexual encounters this year. The woman’s restraining order request was recently denied by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, who ruled that Bauer does not pose a continual threat to her, in part because he was only violent during sex.
The Pasadena Police Department turned the case over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. The MLB is conducting its own investigation.
MLB defines sexual assault as “a range of behaviors, including a completed nonconsensual sex act, an attempted nonconsensual sex act, and/or nonconsensual sexual contact. Lack of consent is inferred when a person uses force, harassment, threat of force, threat of adverse personnel or disciplinary action, or other coercion, or when the victim is asleep, incapacitated, unconscious or legally incapable of consent.”
A second woman has also accused Bauer of sexual assault, telling the Washington Post on Aug. 14 that he punched and choked her during sex and she filed a restraining order petition last summer before withdrawing it six weeks later.
The Dodgers made Bauer the highest-paid player in MLB history this offseason, awarding him a salary worth roughly $40 million per year. He’s still being paid while on leave. According to Passan, MLB likely won’t decide on a potential suspension until the District Attorney’s Office rules on the case.
Bauer has denied the allegations from both women. During the restraining order hearing, he invoked his fifth amendment right.
For the Dodgers, Bauer went 8-5 with a 2.59 ERA and 137 strikeouts in 17 starts. He won’t pitch again in 2021, leaving LA with a still-potent rotation featuring Walker Buehler, Max Scherzer, Julio Urías and Clayton Kershaw. Heading into Friday’s action, LA trailed San Francisco by 2.5 games in the National League West.