Trevor Bauer suspended for two seasons by MLB; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher to appeal ban
Major League Baseball announced a 324-game suspension for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Friday, the equivalent of two full seasons and by far the most severe punishment handed out under the sport's domestic violence policy. Bauer promptly released a statement announcing he was appealing the suspension, thus becoming the first player to contest punishment through MLB's domestic violence policy. Bauer, 31, was accused of sexual assault by a San Diego woman who requested a restraining order and essentially alleged that he took consensual rough sex too far over the course of two encounters last April and May. An L.A. judge denied the woman a permanent restraining order in August, and the L.A. County District Attorney's Office declined to file criminal charges in February. But MLB has the autonomy to suspend players without a criminal conviction, and spoke to other women who also said they had been assaulted by Bauer. Bauer's suspension, if it holds through the appeal process, would last until the 19th game of the 2024 season, by which point his three-year contract with the Dodgers will have expired. The Dodgers would save the $28-plus million that remains on his contract in 2022 and the full $32 million on his contract in 2023.
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Third woman accuses Los Angeles Dodgers' Trevor Bauer of sexual assault, says she's willing to testify in appeal hearing
She is the third known woman to accuse Bauer of sexual assault, and spoke with MLB as part of its investigation into Bauer's conduct before the league issued its discipline. Bauer has vowed to challenge the suspension before Martin Scheinman, baseball's independent arbitrator, who is faced with deciding whether commissioner Rob Manfred had "just cause'' for the discipline under the domestic violence policy agreed to in 2015.The woman, from Columbus, Ohio, said she is willing to testify in the arbitration hearing.
The Post reported.The woman said she met Bauer on a dating app in 2013, when he was pitching for Cleveland's minor league team, the Columbus Clippers. She told The Post that Bauer began choking her unconscious during sex without them discussing it first, later telling him that she was OK with being choked "to a certain point" -- before she passed out.
During one encounter in January 2014, when they were in a Cleveland hotel after the team's fan festival, the woman told The Post she passed out with Bauer's hands around her neck, only to be awoken by Bauer saying she had been convulsing on the hotel room bed. The woman said Bauer was apologetic for violating their established boundary, but that as their relationship continued over the years, he would frequently disregard her warnings and choke her to the point of unconsciousness.
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