Dodgers To Make Big Decision On Trevor Bauer

The Los Angeles Dodgers have just one week to make a decision on Trevor Bauer's future with the team. An arbitrator last week reduced his record suspension from 324 games to 194 games and immediately reinstated him from the restricted list.

The Dodgers have until January 6 to either add Bauer to their 40-man roster or release him. They're canvassing the league to see if they can work out a trade. One recent report, from Jack Harris of the LA Times, says they're still undecided.

As of (last) Thursday night, club executives were still discussing how they would proceed, according to people with knowledge of the situation, and could wait to make a final decision until closer to the Jan. 6 deadline to either release Bauer or activate him.

He added that "the prevailing industry belief was that the pitcher would never take the mound in a Dodgers uniform again."

And a new report, from MLB Insider Jon Heyman, says the Dodgers are indeed leaning towards releasing the former Cy Young Award winner. "Word is folks in their clubhouse would prefer he’d be elsewhere."

The Dodgers are expected to release Trevor Bauer because some in their clubhouse prefer him elsewhere, per @jonheyman

Bauer was reinstated after having 194 games of his 324-game suspension upheld for violating MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy pic.twitter.com/1yQ8xzLSoC
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) December 30, 2022

Bauer is entering the final season of the three-year, $102M contract he signed with the team in February 2021. His $32M salary for 2023 was docked by 50 games by the arbitrator, so he's still owed $22M, which the Dodgers will undoubtedly be on the hook for.

Sexual assault allegations derailed Bauer's career midway through the 2021 season. He was coming off a Cy Young season in 2020, when he posted a 1.73 ERA and 0.79 ERA with the Cincinnati Reds, and had a 2.59 ERA and 1.00 WHIP with the Dodgers, with 11.5 K/9 when the sordid affair cropped up and led to him being placed on the restricted list and eventually suspended.

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