IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic accounts of domestic violence and sexual assault. If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault or domestic violence, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or the Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
With MLB’s season just around the corner, the MLBPA and MLB agreed to extend Trevor Bauer’s paid administrative leave for seven days, a source confirmed Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein.
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman and the Los Angeles Times’ Jorge Castillo were the first to report the move.
Similar to last season, Bauer’s leave will be for seven days beginning on Sunday, March 13, through Saturday, March 19. Additionally, the Dodgers pitcher will not report to spring training during that stretch or before Sunday.
In February the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced that Bauer would not face criminal charges. The pitcher was being investigated by L.A. authorities after a woman who said she met Bauer on two different occasions described violent encounters that she said began as consensual sex. She left the encounters with various injuries, including head and face trauma.
The woman said that Bauer choked her unconscious with her own hair and penetrated her anally without consent in April. A similar incident, the woman said, happened in May, when Bauer, according to her account, choked her unconscious and was repeatedly punching her in the head when she regained consciousness.
“What happened was not consensual,” the woman testified, per the Los Angeles Times. “If they were going to put out their side of the story, it was fair to me to show that it was far beyond [consensual] choking.”
Bauer denied the allegations, saying she had asked for rough sex.
The woman had sought a five-year restraining order against Bauer, which is the maximum under California law. However, a judge dissolved a temporary order on Aug. 19 and denied the five-year order, saying he is not a future threat to the woman in California.
The court ultimately found that the woman’s claims were “materially misleading,” and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said the only evidence of anything happening while the woman was unconscious was from being “hit on the butt.”
Additionally, Gould-Saltman’s focus on consent related only to whether the woman consented to having rough sex with Bauer, which she did. “If she set limits and he exceeded them, this case would’ve been clear,” the judge said. “But she set limits without considering all the consequences and [Bauer] did not exceed limits that the petitioner set … they were consequences of the acts which she did consent to, including being choked.”
In a statement after the DA’s office announces its decision, Bauer said, in part, “I had consensual sex with this woman on two occasions at my residence in Pasadena, during which we engaged in rough sex. This is something that she brought up, we discussed together, and both agreed to engage in. We established rules and boundaries and I followed them. On both occasions, she consented beforehand when we established those boundaries. She also repeatedly consented during sex, when I asked her multiple times if she was enjoying herself and if she wanted to continue. In fact, she continued to direct me as to what she wanted in no uncertain terms.”
The Dodgers star last pitched on June 28 and was placed on administrative leave in July. Although Bauer will not face criminal charges, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred can still hand down a punishment and suspend him under the league’s and the players association’s joint domestic violence policy, which can be read here.
Bauer has repeated denied the woman’s accounts. He continues to be paid by Los Angeles while on leave, which is standard practice for MLB during ongoing investigations.
