News

Dodgers pitcher accused of sexual assault will not play again this season amid probe

Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Trevor Bauer will not be playing for the remainder of the 2021 season as Major League Baseball continues an investigation into sexual assault allegations made against him earlier this year.

“Today Mr. Bauer agreed to extend his administrative leave through the playoffs in a measure of good faith and in an effort to minimize any distraction to the Dodgers organization and his teammates. He continues to cooperate with the MLB investigation and refute the baseless allegations against him,” Jon Fetterolf and Rachel Luba, Bauer’s co-agents, said in a joint statement to The Hill.

The Washington Post reported, citing a league official, that the league and its player’s union agreed to extend Bauer’s paid leave.

Earlier this year, a woman accused Bauer of choking and punching her. During her testimony in August, she described one encounter in which she woke up to being punched in the jaw, head and cheekbones. She also recounted being Bauer hitting her vagina with such force that she started to tear up.

“I felt like my soul left my body,” she said during her testimony, according to The Washington Post. “I was terrified, and I couldn’t speak and fight back.”

However, representatives of Bauer have argued that the woman’s claims had no merit and were “defamatory.” They also claimed that at two separate times the two had had consensual sex, according to the Post.

“She left out the part where she asked for rougher sex and said that she’d never been more turned on than when she was choked out,” said Shawn Holley, an attorney for the pitcher.

The woman had filed a restraining order against Bauer, though a judge later denied the request, explaining that the boundaries of rough sex had not been properly communicated by the woman.

The Hill has reached out to the MLB for comment.