The administrative leave for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer was extended a third time on Tuesday, this time through Aug. 6, sources told ESPN.
Major League Baseball was once again given consent by the MLB Players Association to keep Bauer on leave — a non-disciplinary measure that guarantees a player his salary and service time while investigations continue — for an additional 10 days.
The civil hearing for the temporary restraining order obtained against Bauer will take place Monday and Tuesday in L.A. County Superior Court and is expected to last two to three days. Day 3 of that hearing, however, won’t take place until Aug. 19, a 16-day gap that could ultimately prove difficult to make up.
MLB and the City of Pasadena Police Department are conducting separate investigations into Bauer, who has been accused by a woman of choking her until she lost consciousness on multiple occasions, punching her in several areas of her body and leaving her with injuries that required hospitalization over the course of two sexual encounters earlier this year, according to a domestic violence restraining order that was filed in L.A. County Superior Court on June 28, copies of which were obtained by ESPN.
The temporary restraining order was executed ex parte, which can be attained without input from the other party. Bauer’s side has strongly denied the allegations of sexual assault, calling the interactions between him and the woman “wholly consensual” and saying in a prior statement that Bauer “vehemently denies her account of their two meetings.”
The initial hearing to decide whether the temporary restraining order would become permanent took place Friday and was delayed an additional six business days after Bauer’s attorneys requested more time to prepare a defense against witnesses and exhibits they claimed to not have received until the night before the hearing.
Bauer attended the hearing, as did the woman. Bauer’s legal team told the judge that it has advised him not to testify, given the ongoing investigation, but the petitioner’s side stated that he must nonetheless take the stand, even if he invokes his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions. Both sides will call a total of up to 10 witnesses.
Bauer hasn’t been with the Dodgers since initially being placed on leave July 2. The Dodgers have canceled Bauer’s bobblehead night, which was scheduled for Aug. 19, and have removed all of his merchandise from the team and online stores, saying they “did not feel it was appropriate” given the investigations. MLB can unilaterally place players on seven-day administrative leave under its domestic violence policy but must seek consent from the MLBPA to extend it thereafter. A league source said the MLBPA has been cooperative in continually doing so thus far.
Bauer, the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, joined the Dodgers with a record-setting three-year, $102 million contract in February that includes two opt-out clauses.