Trevor Bauer is one of the highest paid pitchers in all of Major League Baseball.
He’s also one of the game’s most hated pitchers….if not the most hated.
From not being able to pitch in a playoff game due to a drone accident to stupidly throwing a baseball into the stands after being taken out of a ballgame, his tenure in Cleveland was anything but non-controversial.
He then spent his next season-and-a-half career with the other MLB Ohio team, and although his tenure in Cincinnati wasn’t nearly as contemptuous as it was in Cleveland, the Reds still decided to let him walk in free agency instead of signing the reigning NL Cy Young winner to a lengthy contract.
And for good reason. Bauer’s time in Los Angeles has been anything but a good signing for President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman. And now with the recent sexual assault allegations from a former girlfriend, there’s an outside chance the former All-Star pitcher could be spending his future days in a jail cell.
Here’s a recap of how serious these allegations are for Bauer:
The woman alleges the man in question, Bauer, “punched her and choked her to a state of unconsciousness.” It got so bad that the woman says, “Bauer punched me with a closed fist to the left side of my jaw, the left side of my head, and both cheekbones.”
She says her perpetrator penetrated her annually without consent.
In addition to punching her, the woman alleges that it’s “very possible Trevor had already been punching and scratching the right side of my face while I was unconscious.”
And to make the allegations even more horrifying, the woman claims, “He flipped me back onto my stomach and began choking me with hair. I lost consciousness again.”
These aren’t just random accusations by the way. She took photos of herself and then presented them to a local Pasadena court, and as you see the photographs on your screen, they are very graphic, disturbing to watch, and overall, a very serious matter.
But here’s where things take a very climatic turn: According to Bauer’s text message conversations with his lady accuser, she reportedly wanted the coitus to be very rough in nature.
Bauer’s legal representatives send the text messages to LarryBrownSports.com.
Just read the text messages for yourself. Everybody has their own opinion on the Trevor Bauer sexual assault case, but the text messages don’t lie. She (or whoever else wrote the text message) said, “Time to choke me out.” When Bauer reportedly texted, “Now I just want my arm around your neck from behind,” the accuser's phone number texted back, “Do it.”
Now, just because someone texts that they want rough sexual intercourse doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll STILL want that once foreplay and other sexual acts actually begin. A woman (or man for that matter) is well within their rights to say, “No” at any time, even during the middle of a sexual act. The man or woman has to comply, or otherwise it can be interpreted as “sexual assault.”
Also, who’s to say the woman actually texted those messages? Maybe it was actually her friend or someone who had access to her phone? Perhaps the woman wasn’t sober when she texted those messages? In fact, some people play around when sexting, and maybe she just wanted to see how Bauer would react to such rough play in the bedroom. I don’t personally agree with this type of foreplay, but the woman can say whatever she wants on the phone according to First Amendment protection.
Secondly, why would Bauer continue this texting conversation and agree to a rough sex relationship? Didn’t he know the woman might not like that type of relationship once it became a reality? It just questions A) If Bauer likes BDSM rough sex and B) If Bauer is naturally an aggressive person to be so calm and collected when agreeing to this type of consensual relationship. In essence, why would Bauer text those kinds of questions about rough sex unless he enjoyed doing that to a female counterpart?
Finally, these text messages are just one form of communication. Things can of course get lost in translation when texting each other. Like many other sexual assault and rape trials, the in-person dialogue between the accuser and the defendant becomes a he-said, she-said trial environment. The jury wasn’t there and doesn’t know what was said between Bauer and the accuser before, during, and after coitus.
As such, just because Bauer proved the accuser seemed to want a consensual BDSM or submissive sexual relationship, that doesn’t necessarily mean the accuser wanted the relationship to remain rough in nature. The accuser is allowed to change their mind at any time. If the perpetrator does not immediately accept “No” as an answer, this becomes an illegal sexual act. Therefore, the woman has gone from a lover to a victim, assuming of course that the woman never fully agreed to such a physical relationship behind closed doors.
The point I’m trying to make is that while Bauer’s legal team has a point that the victim in question’s text message dialogue had a lot of mixed messages, it still doesn’t necessarily give Bauer the right to go forward with such an aggressive relationship. Men and women are both fickle creatures. What they say one day about a physical relationship can change the next.
Furthermore, Bauer is a professional athlete who’s constantly underneath the microscope due to his lengthy contract. Don’t you think that it’s not a good idea to immediately (or ever) get into such a rough sex relationship when you barely know this woman? I’m definitely not saying that the accuser did the confusing text messaging and then changed her mind on purpose. If she’s trying to trap Bauer into a rape conviction, she obviously wouldn’t be very smart to accuse him of sexual assault when the text messages say something entirely different.
What I’m instead saying is theoretically speaking, she might’ve told Bauer to take it slow and then was completely caught off guard when the rough sex took place in the house. I mean, would the woman go through all of this hassle with going to court if it didn’t actually happen? Remember, the accuser has previously told the police that she feared going to the hospital and reporting the incidents because Bauer might retaliate in a severely negative light.
So, with all of that in mind, let’s dig deeper on why the Dodgers should cut ties with Bauer.
There’s a chance that Bauer could go to prison. While you might be able to get back some of his guaranteed money due to contract infringement, do the Dodgers really want that negative publicity by keeping a player on its payroll until the jury says, “guilty?” By keeping Bauer on its payroll until the trial ends, they can then sue for contract infringement. The Atlanta Falcons did this when Michael Vick went to prison for dog fighting. However, the trial (if it even goes to trial) could take forever to finish. Meanwhile, Bauer would continue getting guaranteed paychecks while he’s in a courtroom. He’s currently on paid administrative leave as Major League Baseball continues its investigation into the woman’s claims.
It’s the right thing to do. This is such a subjective interpretation of what the Dodgers should do, but honestly, Bauer just hasn’t learned since his days in Cleveland. And frankly, it’s gotten worse. Regardless of whether sexual assault took place or not, the mere fact that Bauer would engage in such a careless and rough sex environment during the middle of a pennant race tells me he cares more about himself than his Dodger teammates.
Set a precedent for future players. The Dodgers want to try their best to avoid this type of publicity mess in the future. By releasing such a high profile and heavily compensated ballplayer, they’re telling future free agents, “No one is above the law.” That’s important because it tells the players the Dodgers care more about ethics and behavior over performance. Setting a precedent also helps create better team culture.
No one seems to like Bauer. For obvious reasons, his teammates are avoiding answering questions about the legal matter. But even more importantly, they don’t seem to back up Bauer’s claims that he did nothing wrong. Take this interview for example. All-Star third baseman Justin Turner told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, “We’re not really sure what’s going on there. The distraction is outside our clubhouse. We get paid to win baseball games.” Those statements aren’t exactly a ringing endorsement for Bauer. Now, Turner might just be offering up stereotypical answers to avoid such a touchy subject, but notice Turner never once said, “Bauer is a great guy,” or “We want to find out what happened.” All Turner said was about winning baseball games and not knowing what happened. To me, it seems like Turner doesn’t want to know what happened because he at least somewhat agrees with the accuser. So if one of your most important players doesn’t like or agree with Bauer, then why keep him? Max Muncy and Walker Buehler told the press word-for-word verbatim that they don’t want to talk about it. While it’s a very tough subject to talk about, the mere fact that they’re dodging questions from the media seems to me that they’ve completely moved on from having Bauer as a teammate.
So with those four main reasons in mind, why should the Dodgers keep Bauer? It all comes down to money, but remember….this is the Los Angeles Dodgers that we’re talking about, not the Colorado Rockies. Besides the New York Yankees, the Dodgers can afford paying Bauer to simply leave the team.
And quite frankly, do the Dodgers need fans bringing in posters and signs to cut Bauer? What do the Dodgers do if he’s exonerated of all charges? Can you imagine a scenario where Bauer is allowed to pitch again, and all of the Dodger fans at Chavez Ravine boo him?
If you’re wondering, Trevor Bauer signed a 3-year, 102-million dollar deal in the offseason. The first year of his contract is almost up, so we’ll disregard the 2021 season.
Monetarily speaking, Bauer will earn 35.3 million dollars in 2022 and 2023. However, you could pay him in deferments if the luxury tax becomes problematic for the Dodgers.
So, in layman’s terms, the Dodgers could pay Bauer 70 million dollars to leave the team. That would be a great investment from Bauer’s agent to take that deal and run with it. I highly doubt that Bauer would get one big fat check of 70 mil, but he’ll still get over 70 million by simply walking away and not fighting it in court.
It’s a lot of money for the Dodgers to swallow, but at the end of day, public relations and publicity sometimes matter just as much as dollars and cents.
The Dodgers have not handled this well at all. Dodgers owner Stan Kasten even seemingly joked with the reporters by simply saying, “And now we have to have this press conference.” This was a press conference back in early July, and even more unbelievable, he wanted manager Dave Roberts to talk more about the foreign substances problem than Bauer’s recent litigation situation.
Um, yeah Mr. Kasten you need to have this press conference because you signed a guy to 102 million dollars who apparently doesn’t care at all about his behavior. Whether it was legal or not, rough sex isn’t exactly welcomed in this country, so it would’ve been prudent for Kasten to fully address the allegations instead of shrugging them off like it was just an unimportant press conference.
It was a major press conference, and if Kasten doesn’t seem to take Bauer’s legal problems seriously, then why should his teammates?
However, they are taking it seriously and dodging the questions from reporters for obvious and strategic reasons.
And if the players don’t want Bauer, then Friedman and Kasten shouldn’t want him, either.
And if nobody in the organization wants Bauer, then why keep him? The fans will move on, just like the players have.
But what do you think? Should the Dodgers immediately release Bauer, or should they wait until the offseason to make a final decision? Make sure to comment below and subscribe to Sports Broadcast Solutions.