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The Dodgers designated Trevor Bauer for assignment on Friday, ending their ill-fated $102 million investment in the former Cy Young Award winner.
Bauer pitched only 17 games for the Dodgers before he was placed on administrative leave in July 2021, beginning a string of off-the-field battles stemming from sexual assault allegations against the 31-year-old. He has not appeared in a major league game since.
The Dodgers now have seven days to trade Bauer or place him on unconditional release waivers. The latter scenario would formally end his employment with the team, but leave the Dodgers responsible for paying Bauer’s 2023 salary unless another team claims him.
If Bauer clears waivers, another team can sign him for the major league minimum salary ($720,000). The Dodgers would then owe Bauer the remainder of his 2023 salary.
The stigma of Bauer’s suspension – the longest in the history of MLB’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy – might also deter any team from signing Bauer at all.
In December, an arbitrator shortened Bauer’s original two-year suspension to 194 games, making him eligible to play in 2023. The arbitrator also docked Bauer 50 games’ pay, or about $9.46 million of his original $32 million salary.
Bauer was the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner when he signed his lucrative free-agent contract with the defending champion Dodgers. A San Fernando Valley native, Bauer’s homecoming was derailed in short order.
In June 2021, a San Diego woman accused Bauer of sexual assault stemming from their encounter in April of that year, though criminal charges were never brought against him. Bauer went to court to successfully challenge a temporary restraining order, and aggressively defended his actions as part of a consensual encounter. He later accused the woman of defamation in court.
In the meantime, more allegations surfaced. One Ohio woman sought a restraining order against Bauer in 2020, the Washington Post reported. A second woman in Ohio came forward with claims of violent sexual encounters with Bauer in April 2022.
Their allegations – along with those of the San Diego woman, whose counterclaim to Bauer’s defamation suit is still active – were reportedly submitted as evidence by MLB when Bauer appealed his suspension.
For their part, Dodgers players and officials spoke only guardedly about Bauer since he was first placed on administrative leave, preferring to let the legal system and MLB render their judgments first. The arbitrator’s December ruling effectively forced the team to choose between eating the final year of his contract or bearing the stigma of employing him.
“The Dodgers organization believes that allegations of sexual assault or domestic violence should be thoroughly investigated, with due process given to the accused,” the team said in a statement announcing Bauer’s DFA. “From the beginning, we have fully cooperated with Major League Baseball’s investigation and strictly followed the process stipulated under MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.
“Two extensive reviews of all the available evidence in this case – one by Commissioner Manfred and another by a neutral arbitrator – concluded that Mr. Bauer’s actions warranted the longest ever active player suspension in our sport for violations of this policy. Now that this process has been completed, and after careful consideration, we have decided that he will no longer be part of our organization.”
The outcome of Bauer’s defamation suit, which he filed against the San Diego woman in April in U.S. District Court, is yet to be determined. On Friday, he filed a response to the woman’s counterclaim, again denying her allegations of assault while acknowledging she consented to being choked. In his response, Bauer requested a jury trial “on all issues so triable.”
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