Los Angeles Dodgers superstar pitcher Trevor Bauer on Friday was placed on a week-long administrative leave by Major League Baseball amid a criminal investigation of claims by a woman that Bauer sexually assaulted her in a brutal incident.
Bauer's forced leave was announced on the same day President Joe Biden hosted the Dodgers at the White House to mark their World Series win last fall.
Bauer, who won the 2020 National League Cy Young Award while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, in February agreed to a three-year contract with the Dodgers that could pay him a total of $102 million, making him one of the highest-paid baseball players.
The pplayer, who was next scheduled to pitch on Sunday, has not been criminally charged, but is under investigation by police in California.
Bauer also is the subject of a temporary domestic violence restraining order filed Tuesday by his 27-year-old accuser.
That woman said in the application for that order that Bauer choked her until she lost consciousness during two sexual encounters, and during one of the encounters repeatedly punched her in the face and genitals, injuring her so badly that she was hospitalized.
She also alleges he engaged in sexual conduct that she had not agreed to one of the encounters.
Major League Baseball said in a statement that its investigation of allegations made against Bauer by the woman is "is ongoing."
"While no determination in the case has been made, we have made the decision to place Mr. Bauer on seven-day administrative leave effective immediately," MLB said in the statement.
"MLB continues to collect information in our ongoing investigation concurrent with the Pasadena Police Department's active criminal investigation. We will comment further at the appropriate time."
Bauer's agent, Jon Fetterolf, had said that Bauer "had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship" with the woman that she initiated.
"Her basis for filing a protection order is nonexistent, fraudulent, and deliberately omits key facts, information, and her own relevant communications," Fetterolf told NBC News.
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