The Dodgers Should Know Where They Stand on Trevor Bauer

Los Angeles has had months to prepare for the decision of whether to cut the pitcher or continue rostering him.

The Dodgers have 14 days to decide how they will handle Trevor Bauer—whether they will cut the pitcher, who has just been reinstated from the longest suspension for domestic violence in league history, or whether they will continue to roster him.

This is a time frame established by Major League Rule 2(c)(6)(K)(iii). But the Dodgers shouldn’t need it: They should know where they stand here. The team has had months to prepare for a decision like this one, and now, they should be ready to act.

What can they learn in the next 14 days—about him or about themselves—that they have not learned over the last 18 months? If the Dodgers want to keep Bauer on the roster, they should say so and explain why. The same applies to the opposite decision. But they have had months to contemplate what matters to them, and what price they might place on those principles, and there is not much to gain by waiting.

Bauer was placed on administrative leave by MLB in July 2021, when a woman filed a petition requesting a restraining order after a pair of sexual encounters that she claimed began as consensual but ended in assault. She said he choked her until she lost consciousness, sodomized her and punched her hard enough that she sought treatment at a hospital. “I felt like my soul left my body, and I was terrified,” the woman said during a hearing in August, according to the Associated Press. Bauer and his representatives have denied the allegations.

The woman was denied the restraining order after the August hearing. 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.” In February the L.A. County district attorney’s office announced it would not press charges against Bauer.

But the league has the ability to investigate on its own and issue a suspension regardless of whether charges are filed—here, MLB’s investigation grew beyond the scope of the original allegations, with two additional women sharing accusations of abuse in The Washington Post—and the league ultimately handed down Bauer’s suspension in April 2022. At 324 games, or two full seasons, it was the longest in league history by a considerable margin. Bauer initiated an appeal process almost immediately. He was the first player to challenge a domestic violence suspension since MLB’s current policy started in ’15, setting off the process that ended Thursday, when an independent arbitrator decided to reduce Bauer’s suspension to 194 games. That covers the time Bauer has already served on suspension and spent on administrative leave—along with a provision docking his pay for the first 50 games of ’23—so the ruling reinstates him to the league immediately.

All that is left is this 14-day window: After two weeks, Bauer will count against the Dodgers’ roster limits, unless they decide to cut him before then. It marks the end of a messy, complicated process that has now lasted a year and a half. And the whole time, the Dodgers have known it could end with a decision like this one. If the arbitrator’s decision seemed sudden—coming months into the process in the days immediately before Christmas—the team has had months to consider the questions that it raises. Chief among them are these: What do the Dodgers care about? At what price? How long should it take them to decide those principles?

The Dodgers released a short statement Thursday night on Twitter: “We have just been informed of the arbitrator’s ruling and will comment as soon as practical.” Bauer’s representatives released one of their own: “While we are pleased that Mr. Bauer has been reinstated immediately, we disagree that any discipline should have been imposed. That said, Mr. Bauer looks forward to his return to the field, where his goal remains to help his team win a World Series.”

There may be some who see the arbitrator’s decision to reduce the suspension for immediate reinstatement as a declaration of innocence. That is false. It only makes the longest domestic violence suspension in league history not quite as long (along with docking Bauer’s pay to start 2023). “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 league’s statement reads in part. The Dodgers now have to decide whether that player is who they want.

Bauer was originally slated to earn $32 million in 2023. The portion of his pay to be docked is about $9.5 million—leaving the Dodgers responsible for roughly $22.5 million. (Bauer signed a three-year, $102 million deal with the Dodgers in February ’21.) They will have to pay this amount regardless of whether they cut him or roster him. There are parts of this decision that are complicated; anything that assigns a dollar amount, or a number of games, to something as fraught as a question of human pain is complicated. Yet modern front offices contemplate all manner of complicated decisions—and the fallout that might ensue from them—all the time now. This front office is famously one of the sharpest in the sport. The question in front of them now is far heavier than their usual fare. But they’ve had months to anticipate it.

Months to think about what it would mean to have Bauer in uniform, taking the mound every five days, functioning as a representative of the club. Months to think about how to explain that to fans who ask what the Dodgers prioritize and why.

To roster Bauer would be to make an explicit statement about the club’s values and perspective. To cut him would do the same, a statement equal in magnitude, opposite in direction. The clock is now ticking on the Dodgers’ choice. And if it takes them 14 days, well, that makes a statement all its own.