MLB cannot allow Trevor Bauer to pitch on Sunday – The Athletic

Major League Baseball must act. A woman, in an official request to a court for a domestic violence restraining order, said that Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer assaulted her on two occasions. She made her allegation under the penalty of perjury. The league has the power to hit the pause button on Bauer’s season while continuing an investigation, and that is absolutely the step it must take.

Under its joint domestic violence policy with the players’ union, commissioner Rob Manfred can immediately place a player accused of domestic violence on administrative leave for up to seven days. The placement is not disciplinary, not a declaration of guilt. The player continues to get paid. He can also request a hearing before an arbitration panel within 24 hours seeking reinstatement.

It’s a procedural move, a relatively minor one at that. It’s the necessary move, considering the seriousness of the allegations against Bauer. And while the Dodgers could decide on their own to skip Bauer’s next start on Sunday, the joint policy says the initial authority to discipline players rests with the commissioner’s office. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts defaulted to that position Thursday night, telling reporters, “It’s out of our hands.”

That’s not true. The Dodgers choose which players they want to use every day. Near the end of the 2015 season, the Nationals suspended Jonathan Papelbon for four games without pay after he tried to choke teammate Bryce Harper in the dugout. Papelbon filed a grievance and won back his pay. The Nationals knew such an outcome was possible. But they went ahead with the suspension anyway, believing it was the right thing to do.

Evidently, the Dodgers are unwilling to take the same step, perhaps out of fear the union will file a grievance if they skip Bauer’s turn when he is healthy, perceiving it as an act of discipline. Fine, follow the domestic violence policy to the letter, and leave this to Manfred. Earlier this week, Manfred suspended Mariners pitcher Héctor Santiago 10 games for possessing a foreign substance on his glove. Granted, the offenses are entirely different. But how ridiculous would it look for MLB to dock Santiago and not even buy time with Bauer, whose alleged offense is far more serious? What exactly would Manfred’s trepidation be here?

To repeat: The woman signed a sworn statement. A restraining order was granted. The Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department is conducting an active investigation. Also: Bauer responded to the allegations not by denying they happened, but by saying they were consensual. His attorney, Jon Fetterolf, said in a statement Tuesday that Bauer “did what was asked.”

In her statement, the woman said she did not ask Bauer to punch her in the face, vagina and buttocks, to stick his fingers down her throat, to engage in anal sex while she was unconscious. She said she sought medical attention after her second encounter with Bauer. And, as attorney Sheryl Ring noted Thursday on Twitter, “the law says that certain things are illegal EVEN IF CONSENT IS GIVEN (Ring’s cap) because they’re so eminently harmful, either that consent cannot be freely given for them, or because that consent is invalid as a matter of public policy.”

Which is not to say Bauer is guilty. The Pasadena Police Department will recommend to a district attorney whether to file charges against him, and he is entitled to due process, both from the legal system and the league. If he is charged, the league likely will withhold judgment until his case moves through the courts. Under its domestic violence policy, Bauer need neither be charged nor convicted for Manfred to suspend him. The legal principles and standards that apply in a courtroom do not necessarily apply in the workplace. The league has more latitude to exercise discretion, as do the Dodgers.

Placing Bauer on a seven-day administrative leave not only would spare the league the tone-deaf look of him taking the mound four days after The Athletic reported details of the restraining order, but also give Manfred and his investigators time to form a fuller judgment. The seven days would end just before the All-Star break, and the downtime at the break effectively would give the league nearly two weeks to determine its next course of action.

Bauer cannot remain on administrative leave indefinitely; after the seven days expire, Manfred would lose sole authority to keep him off the field. The union must approve any extension of administrative leave, as it did with former Cubs shortstop Addison Russell in 2018 and Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán in 2019, two players the league ultimately suspended.

Would the union fight a similar extension with Bauer? Perhaps, if it believed the league was acting unfairly. The union, after all, exists to defend and assert the rights of the players. But based on the details in the domestic violence restraining order against Bauer, the union also might view a prolonged investigation into his conduct as warranted.

One step at a time. The first question is whether the league should allow Bauer to take the mound Sunday when it has the power to place him on a form of leave that assigns him no guilt and enables him to continue getting paid.

The answer for Manfred is so obvious, he should have announced the decision almost immediately. If Bauer wants to challenge it, fine. If he prevails in front of an arbitrator or ultimately is cleared of any wrongdoing, so be it. But when a star player faces such pointed allegations, a league that professes to be taking domestic violence and sexual misconduct against women seriously cannot abandon that responsibility. It cannot allow Bauer to pitch Sunday.

(Photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)