AP source: Bauer’s appeal of suspension to begin May 23

By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Trevor Bauer’s arbitration appeal of his unprecedented two-year suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy has been scheduled to start May 23, a person familiar with the hearing told The Associated Press.

The person spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the date was not announced.

The appeal will be heard by a three-person panel chaired by independent arbitrator Martin Scheinman. It will include one representative each from MLB and the players’ association.

Bauer was suspended by Commissioner Rob Manfred on April 29, a penalty that if unchanged will cost the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher just over $60 million of his $102 million, three-year contract. Bauer immediately said he would challenge it.

A San Diego woman, whom the pitcher had met through social media, has alleged Bauer beat and sexually abused her last year. She later sought but was denied a restraining order. Los Angeles prosecutors said in February there was insufficient evidence to prove the woman’s accusations beyond a reasonable doubt.

Bauer, who hasn’t played since the allegations surfaced last summer and MLB began investigating, repeatedly has said that everything that happened between the two was consensual.

Bauer also has sued the woman in federal court, a move that came less than three months after prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges against him.

The lawsuit said “the damage to Mr. Bauer has been extreme” after the woman alleged that he choked her into unconsciousness, punched her repeatedly and had anal sex with her without her consent during two sexual encounters last year.

The pitcher has said the two engaged in rough sex at his Pasadena home at her suggestion and followed guidelines they agreed to in advance. Each encounter ended with them joking and her spending the night, he said.

Two women from Ohio also have accused him of sexual misconduct.

Bauer’s representatives have said the first Ohio woman’s allegation is “categorically false.” Bauer has said he had a “casual and wholly consensual sexual relationship from 2013-2018” with the other Ohio woman and that none of their encounters “ever involved a single non-consensual, let alone illegal, act.”

After winning his first Cy Young with the Cincinnati Reds in 2020, Bauer agreed to join his hometown Dodgers. He did not pitch after June 29 after being placed on administrative leave and finished with an 8-2 record and a 2.59 ERA in 17 appearances.

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