Pitcher Trevor Bauer Reinstated After MLB Suspension Reduced By Independent Arbitrator

The 2015 Maui County Police Department press release was four short paragraphs in length and listed the classification of charges against Jose Reyes as, “Abuse of a family and/or household member.”

Reyes, then 32 and a member of the Colorado Rockies, was arrested by Maui authorities following an incident at the Four Seasons Resort hotel in Wailea, Maui on October 31, 2015. The release stated that Reyes and his wife “were involved in an argument that turned physical and resulted in injuries. Mrs. Reyes was treated by medics at the scene and later transported to the Maui Memorial Medical Center for further treatment.”

Reyes posted $1,000.00 bail and was issued a citation not to have contact with his wife for three days.

Only two months before Reyes’ arrest, Major League Baseball had implemented its collectively-bargained Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. One of the policy statutes agreed upon by both the league and players’ union is that baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has the authority to suspend players in violation of the policy, even if the player is not arrested or convicted in a court of law.

Maui prosecutors ended up dismissing the criminal case against Reyes after his wife refused to cooperate with authorities, but Manfred still suspended the switch-hitter 51 games in 2016. The Rockies released Reyes in June that year, but the Mets swooped in and signed Reyes — the team he started his major league career with — despite the potential distraction and baggage he would bring.

“A lot of people said a lot of stuff. I don’t know if I’d even be playing baseball now. It was kind of tough for me,” Reyes told the New York Daily News in October 2016, when asked if he thought his baseball career was done following the suspension.

Pitcher Trevor Bauer may face a similar career crossroads now that his appeal of his MLB suspension has been resolved. Bauer was reinstated Thursday, December 22, by a neutral arbitrator, who ruled that Bauer’s record 324-game suspension for violating the Joint Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Policy should be reduced to 194 games. The 31-year-old is still under contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the franchise must decide within the next two weeks whether to keep the right-hander on its roster or sever ties.

The arbitrator, Martin Scheinman, presided over Bauer’s months-long arbitration hearing which began this past spring. Bauer, who last pitched in the majors on June 28, 2021, already served 144 games of the suspension, and will be docked pay for the first 50 games of the 2023 season (March 30-May 23), according to a MLB statement. The question is whether Bauer will still be pitching for the Dodgers after May 23, or with another MLB club. Bauer signed a three-year, $102 million deal with the Dodgers before the ‘21 season.

“While we are pleased that Mr. Bauer has been reinstated immediately, we disagree that any discipline should have been imposed,” Bauer’s representatives, Jon Fetterolf, Shawn Holley and Rachel Luba, said in a statement. “That said, Mr. Bauer looks forward to his return to the field, where his goal remains to help his team win a World Series.”

The league said in part in its statement on the Bauer matter: “While we believe a longer suspension was warranted, MLB will abide by the neutral arbitrator’s decision, which upholds baseball’s longest-ever active player suspension for sexual assault or domestic violence.”

The Scheinman ruling brings to a close a complicated and many-layered case that began back in June 2021. The day after Bauer last pitched in the majors, a San Diego woman filed a request for an ex parte, or temporary, domestic violence restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court. The request included a declaration by the woman, in which she accused Bauer of sexual assault on two separate occasions in 2021 at his Pasadena, California home. The allegations included choking her to the point of unconsciousness during sex, sodomy and punching her in the face.

Bauer denied the allegations and his agent/attorney Fetterolf said then that Bauer “had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship initiated by [the woman] beginning in April 2021.” Still, MLB placed Bauer on paid administrative leave in early July 2021 while the league conducted its investigation of Bauer. Pasadena police opened a separate, criminal probe of the 2020 National League Cy Young winner.

In August 2021, after a four-day hearing to determine if the San Diego woman would be granted a permanent restraining order, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman ruled that the woman’s initial declaration was “materially misleading,” denied her the permanent restraining order and dissolved the temporary DVRO. Bauer did not testify at the hearing.

In February 2022, the Los Angeles County district attorney, after reviewing the Pasadena PD’s criminal case, decided against seeking charges against Bauer. The pitcher released a YouTube video that same day in which he confirms he and the San Diego woman “engaged in rough sex.” Bauer denies sexually assaulting her in the video.

As MLB’s investigation of Bauer unfolded, two Ohio women who also accused the pitcher of sexual assault — and whose allegations were first reported by the Washington Post — cooperated with MLB in its probe, according to attorneys representing the women. Joseph Tacopina, who represents one of the Bauer accusers, said his client testified in Bauer’s arbitration hearing, and that it “is of no concern” to his client that Bauer’s suspension was ultimately reduced.

“What is important, and confirmation of horrific allegations, is that the arbitrator (Scheinman) selected by MLB and the MLBPA affirmed that Trevor Bauer violated Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy,” Tacopina said in an email. “That is vindication for the brave victims who came forward and testified. Period. The amount of games he was suspended is of no concern to my client and is a matter for the league and the union to be concerned about.”

Tacopina was an attorney for Alex Rodriguez when the former Yankee appealed his 2013 MLB doping suspension. Rodriguez’s 211-game ban was eventually reduced to 162 games by an arbitrator, and he served the ban for the entire 2014 season.

The players’ union declined comment on Bauer’s reinstatement. An attorney representing the San Diego woman, Bryan Freedman, did not respond to a request for comment. Bauer will lose approximately $38 million as a result of his suspension.

Bauer filed three separate defamation lawsuits in federal court this past year: one against the San Diego woman and one of her attorneys — Newport Beach-based Fred Thiagarajah; one against G/O Media, the parent company of Deadspin, and managing editor Chris Baud; and one against The Athletic and reporter Molly Knight.

Those cases remain open.

After MLB’s announcement on the results of Bauer’s arbitration hearing, the pitcher was quick to take to social media.

“The 2023 season Vlog (video blog) is going to be (fire emoji)! Can’t wait to see y’all out at a stadium soon!” Bauer wrote in the December 22 tweet.