Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer placed on administrative leave following sexual assault allegations
Umpires check the hat and glove of Trevor Bauer #27 of the Los Angeles Dodgers for foreign substances after the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on June 28, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
Los Angeles Dodgers superstar pitcher Trevor Bauer on Friday was placed on a week-long administrative leave by Major League Baseball amid a criminal investigation of claims by a woman that Bauer sexually assaulted her in a brutal incident.
Bauer’s forced leave was announced on the same day President Joe Biden hosted the Dodgers at the White House to mark their World Series win last fall.
Bauer, who won the 2020 National League Cy Young Award while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, in February agreed to a three-year contract with the Dodgers that could pay him a total of $102 million, making him one of the highest-paid baseball players.
The 30-year-old, who was next scheduled to pitch Sunday in Washington against the Nationals, has not been criminally charged. But he is under criminal investigation by police in California.
Bauer also is the subject of a temporary domestic violence restraining order filed Tuesday by his 27-year-old accuser.
Major League Baseball said in a statement that its investigation of allegations made against Bauer by the woman is “is ongoing.”
“While no determination in the case has been made, we have made the decision to place Mr. Bauer on seven-day administrative leave effective immediately,” MLB said in the statement.
“MLB continues to collect information in our ongoing investigation concurrent with the Pasadena Police Department’s active criminal investigation. We will comment further at the appropriate time.”
The announcement came a day after Sports Illustrated published an article online with the headline: “Trevor Bauer Must Not Start Sunday.”
The article blasted the Dodgers and MLB for “cowardice” in not having placed Bauer on leave despite the “sickening” allegations against him.
Bauer’s accuser said in her application for the restraining order that he choked her until she lost consciousness during two sexual encounters, and during one of the encounters repeatedly punched her in the face and genitals, injuring her so badly that she was hospitalized.
She also alleges he engaged in sexual conduct that she had not agreed to one of the encounters.
Bauer’s agent, Jon Fetterolf, has said that Bauer “had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship” with the woman that she initiated.
“Her basis for filing a protection order is nonexistent, fraudulent, and deliberately omits key facts, information, and her own relevant communications,” Fetterolf told NBC News.
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