LOS ANGELES — Trevor Bauer will not report to Camelback Ranch this week. The Dodgers pitcher will start this spring the same way he finished last season: on leave, while Major League Baseball continues what is now an eight-month investigation into sexual assault allegations against him.
The leave extends through March 19 and can be extended through agreement of the league and the players’ union.
Although Bauer was cleared last month of criminal charges, the league retains the right to suspend him for violating its policy on sexual assault. Commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to do so.
The league did not handle player business during the lockout. The league is now expected to pursue an interview with Bauer, providing him with information from its investigation and offering him a chance to respond.
Of the 15 players previously suspended under the policy, all have accepted a settlement in which they agreed not to appeal. Bauer maintains he did nothing wrong and should not be suspended. He could appeal any suspension to an arbitrator, who could uphold, shorten, or reject a suspension.
Manfred also has the option to let the Dodgers make the decision on any discipline.
On Friday, Bauer retweeted a report that a grand jury had declined to indict Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson on sexual assault allegations. Bauer later retweeted Watson, saying “when you stand on the TRUTH, the LORD will FREE you!”
On Wednesday, he retweeted a report that singer Chris Brown had threatened to sue a woman who had accused him of rape, saying voice mails and text messages proved their encounter was consensual.
On Thursday, after the lockout ended, Bauer tweeted a picture of himself yelling joyfully, with his tweet saying: “Reaction when baseball is back. About damn time”. In the picture, he was wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform.
Bauer did not play for the Dodgers in the second half of last season but received his full $38 million salary and signing bonus because players on leave are paid. Bauer is due $32 million this season; players are not paid during spring training.
Bauer was accused of sexual assault by a San Diego woman last June, in a petition seeking a restraining order against him. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied the restraining order last August, ruling there was no evidence Bauer would “harm or even have contact” with her and saying she had been “materially misleading” in the petition.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office last month declined to file criminal charges against Bauer. The official form of declination said Bauer was investigated for “assault by means likely to cause great bodily harm, sodomy of a sleeping person and domestic violence.”
After a review of the restraining order proceedings, witness statements, and physical evidence, the district attorney’s office said it could not prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Bauer then released a video called “The Truth,” in which he said the truth was this: “While we did have consensual rough sex, the disturbing acts and conduct she described simply did not occur.”
He since has asked the Pasadena police department to provide cell phone records that his attorneys argued in court filings could “provide evidence of a plan to “ruin [Bauer’s] reputation and career and to earn a large paycheck by making false and misleading allegations.”
The woman’s attorney has asked that the subpoena served on the Pasadena police be thrown out, calling the effort to obtain her phone records “a way to continue harassing and disturbing” the woman six months after she was denied a restraining order against him.
A hearing on that issue is set April 4.
