Law enforcement authorities in Southern California have confirmed that they are investigating an assault allegation against Trevor Bauer, the star pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Lieutenant Bill Grisafe, a spokesman for the Pasadena Police Department, said late Tuesday night that a woman had accused Bauer, 30, of assaulting her in the city on or around May 16, and that the department had begun looking into the allegation soon after it was reported to the police.
“The Dodgers were made aware of the allegations against Trevor Bauer late this afternoon,” the Dodgers said in a statement released late Tuesday, “and immediately contacted Major League Baseball, which will be handling this matter. The Dodgers take any allegations of this nature very seriously, but will have no further comment at this time.”
On Tuesday, a woman filed a request in Los Angeles County Superior Court for a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Bauer.
Marc H. Garelick, a lawyer representing the woman, said in an emailed statement that his client had sought and obtained the order because of “a recent assault that took place at the hands of Mr. Bauer” in which she said she had suffered “severe physical and emotional pain.”
Bauer denied any wrongdoing in a statement from his agent, Jon Fetterolf, saying he and the accuser had a “brief and wholly consensual sexual” relationship that amounted to two encounters and was initiated by the woman in April.
Fetterolf said in the emailed statement that Bauer had messages showing that the woman had asked to be choked and slapped during the encounters.
According to the statement from Fetterolf, Bauer and the woman had not talked in at least a month and had not seen each other in more than six weeks.
During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Bauer posted a 1.73 earned run average over 73 innings with the Cincinnati Reds to win his first Cy Young Award. Over the winter, Bauer, who has also pitched for Arizona and Cleveland, signed a free-agent deal with the Dodgers for three years and $102 million guaranteed.