Trevor Bauer says Major League Baseball has pressured teams against signing him following his 194-game suspension for a violation of MLB’s Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.
‘Well one team told us it’s not their decision, it’s an mlb decision,’ Bauer wrote Monday on X in a conversation with Cincinnati Reds fans.
MLB disagrees with Bauer’s claim.Â
When contacted for a response by DailyMail.com, a league spokesman shared a previously published statement on the pitcher: ‘Trevor Bauer served the entirety of his discipline and is an unrestricted free agent available to sign a contract with any team.’
Bauer has pitched well in Mexico this season after a successful 2023 campaign in Japan. Still, he’s failed to attract Major League teams following sexual assault allegations from four women, one of whom faces fraud and extortion charges in Arizona as a result of her claims.
Trevor Bauer helped the Diablos Rojos beat New York 4-3 in an exhibition game in MarchÂ
Trevor Bauer says Major League Baseball has pressured teams against signing him
The 31-year-old Bauer was never charged with any crime in the matters and has maintained his innocence in all cases. However, the league did investigate Bauer over some of the claims in 2022 and a neutral third-party arbitrator upheld the ruling even though he was never charged.Â
MLB’s joint sexual assault and domestic violence policy was created with the players’ union (MLBPA) and allows for individuals to be punished by the league without a guilty verdict.Â
‘A Player may be subjected to disciplinary action for just cause by the Commissioner for a violation of this Policy in the absence of a conviction or a plea of guilty to a crime involving a Covered Act,’ reads an excerpt from the policy.Â
Several X users in Monday’s thread were eager for Bauer to return to Cincinnati, where he won the 2020 National League Cy Young Award. But without offering specifics, Bauer suggested his problem is unrelated to his ability as a pitcher.
‘There’s absolutely 0 belief that my stuff won’t succeed in the league,’ Bauer said. ‘Every team we talk to says I’d be their 1 or 2 in their rotation.’
He’s been solid this season in the Mexican League, which is classified as Triple-A and comparable to the highest-rung on the minor-league ladder.Â
In 14 starts for the Diablos Rojos del México, Bauer is 10-0 with a 2.48 earned-run average, while striking out a whopping 13 batters per nine innings.
Trevor Bauer #96 of South Zone Team recording during the annual batting competition ‘Home Run Derby’ of the Mexican Baseball League
The problem, according to Bauer, is MLB.
When one fan asked ‘since when does MLB have say over who a team signs,’ Bauer doubled down.
‘That’s a great question about MLB,’ Bauer responded. ‘[It] shouldn’t be their decision but apparently in certain cases it is…And all your coaches and players agree with that but…they’ve been told…’
Bauer’s interaction with fans verged into personal attacks on unnamed former teammates in Cincinnati. In one case, Bauer suggested that a veteran star had lost his motivation after struggling to win in Cincinnati for a decade.
‘Apparently losing for 10 straight years sucks the competitor out of you,’ Bauer wrote.
Bauer has struggled to distance himself from sexual assault allegations and has been unable to sign with a MLB team since being released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in January of 2023 as he finished serving his suspension.
While Bauer and accuser Lindsey Hill admitted to having consensual sex in 2021, Hill claims that the pitcher went overboard by punching her, choking her unconscious, and sodomizing her without her consent.
Bauer was never charged in the case, and in October of 2023, the pair settled their respective defamation counter lawsuits against each other. No money exchanged hands in either case.Â
Bauer (right) was accused of sexual assault by Lindsey Hill (left) but was never charged
Darcy Adanna Esemonu is accused of trying to defraud Trevor Bauer and another manÂ
Since then, Bauer released a video detailing his version of events on X, showing a text sent from Hill to a friend calling the pitcher her ‘next victim.’
But while Bauer maintains his innocence, he has admitted to ‘mistakes’ in his personal life and insists he’s no longer having ‘casual sexual relationships anymore.’
While Bauer is a controversial figure among baseball fans, his ability on the mound is not in question.
After a brilliant collegiate career at UCLA, the California native had seven solid seasons with the Cleveland Indians before winning the NL Cy Young award with a league-best 1.73 earned-run average.
The Dodgers then signed Bauer to a three-year, $102 million deal before the 2021 season, only to have him suspended amid the sexual assault allegations.
In December of 2022, an arbitrator reduced Bauer’s ban to 194 games and he was reinstated before ultimately being released by the Dodgers.
He then signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Nippon Professional Baseball league. In 19 appearances for the BayStars, Bauer had a 10-4 record with an impressive 2.76 ERA.
Since then, an Arizona woman was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County on fraud and extortion charges involving Bauer and another man, although the exact allegations remain unclear.
That woman, Darcy Adanna Esemonu, was indicted in March on allegations that she ‘knowingly did obtain a benefit from Marco Bresciant and Trevor Anthony Bauer, by means of fraudulent pretenses, representation, promises, or material omissions,’ according to the indictment provided to DailyMail.com.
Esemonu faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Bauer (seen playing for the Yokohama BayStars) was suspended by MLB over assault claimsÂ
DailyMail.com reached out to another attorney who represents Esemonu in her ongoing sexual assault lawsuit against Bauer in Arizona, but did not received a response.
Bauer responded to news of Esemonu’s indictment on YouTube by claiming that she demanded $3.6 million from him for allegedly pressuring her to have an abortion – a claim he denies.Â
In 2021, The Washington Post found records showing that an Ohio woman had sought a temporary protective order against Bauer in June of 2020, and another woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2022 and 2023. He has denied these allegations.
Bauer filed defamation lawsuits against several outlets over their reporting of the allegations, but he dropped his case against The Athletic and a lawsuit against Deadspin was dismissed in March of 2023.
