Trevor Bauer wants Major League Baseball to give him another chance.
The former Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher and Cy Young award winner appeared on Fox News Channel on Thursday in his first television interview since he was suspended by MLB amid allegations that he sexually assaulted and beat a woman in 2021.
Charges were never filed and Bauer and his accuser settled dueling defamation lawsuits out of court last year.
“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. Never will. Never have. It’s not who I am as a person,” Bauer told FNC’s Bill Hemmer. “It’s been excruciating the last two and a half years being seen that way.”
In February 2021, Bauer signed a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers after winning the National League Cy Young Award the previous year.
Once the assault allegation surfaced, the North Hollywood native was placed on administrative leave by MLB in July 2021. He was suspended an unprecedented 324 games, which was later reduced to 194 games.
After the suspension ended, the Dodgers released Bauer and no MLB team picked him up.
The 32-year-old pitched in Japan for the Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars in 2023 where he went 11-4 in 24 appearances with a 2.59 ERA.
Now, as he and his agent search for a new major league home for his talents, he insists the experience has left him a changed man.
“I’ve done a lot of reflecting … and made a lot of changes in my life to address that. I’m not having casual sexual relationships anymore, for example,” Bauer said.
He also said he regrets the way he handled the assault allegations in the media, calling his response “immature” and driven in part by a desire to “stand up” for himself after suffering bullying as a child.
In October 2023, Bauer, spoke out on X, formerly Twitter, about the allegation that derailed his career and also shared a video to bolster his claim that his accuser, Lindsey Hill, set him up to take his money.
He shared a selfie video of Hill smiling in his bed that was purportedly recorded the morning after she said Bauer raped and beat her at his Pasadena home.
Hill alleged that Bauer choked her into unconsciousness, punched her repeatedly, and had anal sex with her without her consent during two sexual encounters. The pitcher has said the two engaged in rough sex at her suggestion and followed guidelines they agreed to in advance.
Addressing several other allegations leveled by different women, Bauer told FNC there is still one pending lawsuit that he is confident he will “win.”
The 2018 All-Star admits to making “mistakes” in his personal life but insists he does not see himself as a victim.
“I know that I’ve made mistakes,” he acknowledged. “I agreed to do things that I shouldn’t have done … was reckless. It hurt a lot of people along the way [and] made things very difficult for Major League Baseball, for the Dodgers, my teammates, friends, family, people close to me.”
