Major League Baseball has put all the other professional leagues on notice, showing it really is possible to hold players accountable for their toxic and abusive behavior and, better yet, impose a punishment significant enough to serve as a deterrent for others.
You just need to have the will to do it.
While the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Soccer all pay lip service to the idea that they take domestic violence seriously, either imposing inadequate punishments or avoiding doing much of anything at all, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred kicked Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer out of baseball for what is effectively three years. The two-year suspension handed down Friday afternoon is not retroactive, and the Los Angeles Dodgers star hasn’t pitched since last June.
The suspension is so lengthy it will outlast the three-year contract Bauer signed with the Dodgers in 2021, and might well end the 31-year-old’s career.
And Manfred did it without video evidence or a criminal conviction.
BAUER SUSPENSION: Appeal is happening, but there’s no way back to MLB
Imagine that. Manfred believed the women who said Bauer had abused them during sexual encounters, going beyond what they had agreed to or assaulting them while they were unconscious, and punished Bauer accordingly.
He wasn’t swayed by the legalese that resulted in Bauer not facing charges, rightly understanding that a decision that a case cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt is not the same as an exoneration. He saw through
