Reprinted from Slayed by Voices … 

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I’m not sure I ever typed “Trevor Bauer” and “Dodgers” in the same sentence, and thankfully after tonight, I never will.

The Dodgers cut ties Friday with the 31-year-old “pitcher” on the following basis, as indicated in their 4:16 p.m. PT statement.

The Dodgers organization believes that allegations of sexual assault or domestic violence should be thoroughly investigated, with due process given to the accused. From the beginning, we have fully cooperated with Major League Baseball’s investigation and strictly followed the process stipulated under MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. Two extensive reviews of all the available evidence in this case — one by Commissioner Manfred and another by a neutral arbitrator — concluded that Mr. Bauer’s actions warranted the longest ever active player suspension in our sport for violations of this policy. Now that this process has been completed, and after careful consideration, we have decided that he will no longer be part of our organization.

I don’t have the slightest need nor desire to dive into the allegations of sexual assault that led to Bauer’s suspension from Major League Baseball on July 2, 2021. Bauer started flinging lawsuits around like kale chips from a hot-air balloon. (I just made that up.) There was one high-profile showdown in court, in which the judge ruled that no restraining order was needed to keep Bauer away from his accuser since they were nowhere near each other. Some in the public confused that as an exoneration of Bauer when it was anything but. Click if you want the terrible details.

“Notwithstanding [the woman’s] consent to some form of rough sex,” U.S. District Court Judge James Selna wrote, “Bauer engaged in acts while [she] was unconscious, when she was physically and legally unable to give consent.”

Luckily for me, I had backed away from regularly writing about the Dodgers before the team signed Bauer. Based on stuff such as his checkered reputation that included documented cases of online abuse, targeted mainly against women, I posted the following upon hearing the news.

And except for some tweets during the restraining order case, that was all I had to say on the matter.

MLB’s lengthy suspension of Bauer lasted through the remainder of the 2021 season and all of 2022, but late last month, the suspension was cut off by an arbitrator. That mean the Dodgers had two weeks to decide whether to keep or cut Bauer. It was a decision they should have been prepared to make instantaneously, and to say the very least, it served no one that they took the maximum amount of time to announce it.

But if nothing else, they did.

Subsequently, Bauer released a statement that came straight out of a guffaw generator.

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I read this once, twice, three times a lady … and if this attempt to perpetuate a delusion upon the public didn’t speak volumes, what does? My comment:

So here we are. The Dodgers move on without Bauer — though for the privilege of this adventure, they will still have to pay Bauer the approximately $22 million he is owed for 2023 now that his suspension is lifted. Meanwhile, as he tries to find one team desperate and blind enough to sign him, Bauer is left to lead his acolytes into their own Fantasyland.

Sadly, Bauer’s accusers can’t put a happy ending to their story, and that’s whom we need to keep in mind, most of all.