The start of the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season brought with it a shocking scandal that rocked the sport’s landscape.
Fresh off signing a record-breaking 10-year, $700 million (!!!) deal, two-way phenome Shohei Ohtani was hoping to hit the ground running with his new team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was discovered that Ohtani’s trusted interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was stealing money from him in order to pay off massive gambling debts with an illegal bookmaker.
Mizuhara has pled guilty to his charges and faces up to 33-years in prison.
His sentencing is scheduled for October 25th.
Notably, Major League Baseball has officially cleared Ohtani of any personal wrongdoing in the matter.
Many people initially wondered if Ohtani had anything to do with the situation … What exactly did he know? Was he involved in any way, shape or form? Was Mizuhara merely acting as a fall guy?
There were many theories.
However, Commissioner Rob Manfred and the league declared that Ohtani is completely innocent.
Case closed.
The public clearing of Ohtani allows the Japanese superstar to continue on with the season with a clear mind and a cleared name.
However, the way Manfred and MLB has handled the situation has left former Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer wondering why he hasn’t received the same treatment.
Like Ohtani, Bauer has not only been legally cleared of any wrongdoing but was also found to be a pure victim in the scandal he found himself wrapped up in.
“What about my case, where I also was never charged with anything, and where I’m also the victim of fraud? Why am I not allowed to go back to playing?” Bauer posted on X.
In case you need a refresher, Bauer cleared his name when it came to the sexual assault accusations he from a woman back in 2021.
Once allowed to publicly speak on the situation, Bauer revealed the lies that the woman shamelessly spread in what was a clear money-grab attempt.
“‘Next victim. Star pitcher for the Dodgers,’” Bauer said in a video detailing the situation. “A text the woman sent to a friend before she ever even met me. ‘What should I steal?’ she asked another, in reference to visiting my house for the first time. The answer? ‘Take his money.’ So how might that work? ‘I’m going to his house Wednesday.’ she said, ‘I already have my hooks in. you know how I roll.’ Then, after the first time we met, “Net worth is 51 mil” she said. ‘b—h, you better secure the bag’, was the response.
“But how was she going to do that? ‘Need daddy to choke me out,’ she said. ‘being an absolute whore to try to get in on his 51 million,’ read another text. Then, after the second time we met, former [San Diego] Padres pitcher Jacob Nix told her ‘you gotta get this bag.’ ‘I’ll give you 50,000’ the woman replied. Her AA sponsor asked her at one point, ‘do you feel a tiny bit guilty?’ ‘Not really,’ she replied.”
Finally, the truth came out. But unfortunately for Bauer, the damage was already done.
Not only was he suspended 324 games by Major League Baseball (later reduced to 194 games), his team – the Los Angeles Dodgers – decided to flat-out release him before any investigation could take place.
Even worse, he was instantly labeled guilty by nearly the entire mainstream media.
Another woman also attempted to extort Bauer.
He spoke on that situation as well after it was revealed that the woman had been criminally indicted for felony fraud in the matter.
“One of the women who accused me of sexual assault just got indicted for committing felony fraud against me,” Bauer says in the video. “Let me catch you up to speed. In the last three years, two women have taken legal action against me…
“Well, today, the only other one has been criminally indicted for committing felony fraud against me and another man, so now she’s facing up to 16 years in prison … Here’s some of the details. We had one plain sexual encounter in December of 2020, nothing that could be considered remotely rough. She initiated it, but don’t take my word for it, take hers…
“This is a picture and text message she sent me the next morning explaining why she came on to me. And for months afterward, she repeatedly requested to sleep with me again. For example, this text, from January 7, 2021. At one point she even requested a sample of my sperm so she could ‘have my child whenever she wanted to’ in the future.
“It’s hard to keep track but she’s made at least four 7-figure demands over the last few years. More than a year after the one time we slept together — and only after (the other) false allegations — (did she) retain a lawyer.
“She then demanded $3.6 million dollars and claimed I forced her to have an abortion leaving her ’emotionally devastated and irretrievably damaged’ by it … But here’s the thing – she never had an abortion, because she was never even pregnant, and that’s corroborated by her own medical records.
“When I refused to pay her the 3.6 million dollars she was asking for, she made up a bogus sexual assault claim and filed a civil suit against me.
“In that version of her story, she claimed, for the first time by the way, that there was nonconsensual sex. But her texts from the next morning show what actually happened … She also claims that, instead of an abortion, she actually had a miscarriage. But that’s impossible of course, because again, she was never even pregnant.
“We now have emails between her and the first two law firms that dropped her in which they acknowledge they never had evidence to support her claims, but they’ll try to get my money anyway,” Bauer continued. “I then shared an audio recording I have in which she contradicts her own claims and asks me for money.
“In the emails, her lawyers agree that it’s ‘insurmountable evidence’ and they inform her that they can no longer represent her unless she can provide any documentation or proof of her claims. Of course, she couldn’t do that, so the law firm urged her to consult other law firms with ‘different standards.’
“And just so no one can say well, he still has two other accusers, just because the first two are complete frauds doesn’t mean the others are, here’s a couple facts about them. They both had lawyers first demand in excess of $3 million dollars to ‘not go public.’ In both cases, only after I refused to pay any sum of money did their lawyers make anonymous claims in the media.
“They both had the opportunity to file a criminal complaint against me. Neither of them did.
“They both had the opportunity to file a civil suit against me. Neither of them did. They both had the opportunity to participate in (the previous) civil suit against me. They could have even done so anonymously. They both refused. One of them even submitted a statement to the court stating that she never made public accusations against me.
“So, they both had the opportunity to testify under penalty of perjury. Neither of them did. One can only wonder why. Perhaps it’s because all of their claims against me are lies.
“If there comes a time in the future where I need to defend myself further, I will not hesitate to do so,” Bauer added. “But for now there is no reason to speak further on this topic … There are no claims against me, no ongoing investigations, and no outstanding lawsuits.
“At this point, I’m not sure what else I can possibly do to prove my innocence in all of this. I did not do what I was accused of, and every institution that our society has entrusted to rule on issues like these, like courts, judges, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, etc…they all agree with me.
“They’ve rejected every single claim made against me, even going as far as charging one of my accusers with a felony. If any evidence of any of these claims actually existed, I would have been charged, or at the very least arrested. But that never happened.
“What else do I have to do to prove that this entire situation has been a massive lie? This is insane. At what point do I get to go back to work and continue earning a living?”
Bauer has been out of Major League Baseball since 2021 because of the whole situation.
While teams are now free to sign him if they wish, it’s clear that many clubs (if not all) feel there’s just too big of a stigma associated with Bauer.
Major League Baseball publicly clearing his name and admitting he was a victim in the whole matter would seemingly go a long way towards rectifying the situation.
Following an All-Star season in Japan, Bauer is currently excelling in the Mexican League where he’s 6-0 with a 1.53 ERA while averaging an impressive 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings in eight starts.
He’s made it clear he wants to return to the Majors and has stated that he’d be willing to sign for the veteran minimum.
However, he’s still waiting for his phone to ring…
What are your thoughts on the whole situation?
Does Bauer have a point? … Should MLB publicly clear his name the way they did for Ohtani?
At the end of the day, do you think any team will end up signing Bauer?
Or have we seen the last of him on an MLB diamond???