Nationals Claim Mike Ford
The Nationals announced Monday that they’ve claimed first baseman Mike Ford off waivers from the Rays and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring right-hander Joe Ross from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Tampa Bay had designated Ford for assignment over the weekend.
Ford, 29, had a big showing with the Yankees as a rookie in 2019 when he batted .259/.350/.559 with a dozen home runs in 163 plate appearances. He’s had a near-identical sample of 156 plate appearances since that time, however, and managed just a .134/.250/.276 batting line in the big leagues. The Yankees moved on from Ford back in June when they designated him for assignment, and while the Rays acquired him shortly thereafter, he never got called to the big leagues with Tampa Bay.
Instead, Ford has spent his time with the Rays rediscovering his swing in Triple-A Durham. He’d gone just 2-for-24 with eight strikeouts in 29 plate appearances with the Yankees’ top minor league affiliate this year, but Ford righted the ship (to an extent) with a .243/.346/.529 batting line in 162 Triple-A plate appearances in the Rays organization.
Ford will now join a Nationals club that went through a broad-reaching sell off prior to the trade deadline — a housecleaning effort that could lead to him getting some opportunities down the stretch. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Rochester for the time being, but Ford has another five years of club control remaining so they could take a look at him as a longer-term option at first base (or, if it comes to the National League, designated hitter). Josh Bell has been Washington’s primary first baseman this season but recently made an outfield appearance, which could allow the Nats a path to getting a look at both players at the plate.
As for Ross, the move to the 60-day IL comes as little surprise. The Nats recently announced that the righty was found to have an ulnar collateral ligament injury earlier this month, but he won’t require surgical repair. Still, given the nature of his injury and the remaining time on the calendar, it never looked likely that he’d make it back to the mound in 2021.
Rangers Place Three On Covid-19 List
The Rangers have placed infielder Brock Holt and right-handers Drew Anderson and Mike Foltynewicz on the Covid-19-related injured list, per a club announcement. Lefty Wes Benjamin and first baseman Curtis Terry are up from the taxi squad to fill spots on the active roster, but the Rangers will play today’s game with a 25-man active roster. Texas has also scratched catcher Jonah Heim due to Covid protocols and will start Jose Trevino behind the dish instead, per an additional announcement. Heim has not yet been placed on the Covid-related injured list.
Today’s placements come just days after Charlie Culberson was placed on the Covid IL. They’ll leave the Rangers with a rather short-handed bench and likely result in some additional roster machinations in the days to come. However, while the Rangers are down a pair of third basemen — Holt and Culberson — Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets that a promotion of top third base prospect Josh Jung is “not in the plans” for the team. Yonny Hernandez and Andy Ibanez will split time at the hot corner while Holt and Culberson are away from the team.
The Rangers now have four open spots on the 40-man roster and will be able to promote players from Triple-A — even those not on the 40-man roster — as replacements without needing to subsequently pass them through waivers in order to return them to Round Rock once Holt, Anderson, Foltynewicz and Culberson make their returns.
Marlins To Promote Edward Cabrera
The Marlins are promoting top pitching prospect Edward Cabrera to make his Major League debut Wednesday against the Nationals, per a club announcement (Twitter link, with video of Cabrera being informed he’s being called up to the Majors). Cabrera is already on the 40-man roster, so Miami will only need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move.
It’s been a monster season between Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A for the highly touted Cabrera, as evidenced by a combined 2.93 ERA and 36.9 percent strikeout rate in 61 1/3 innings. Cabrera was out earlier in the season due to an inflamed nerve in his right biceps — an injury that cost him the first two months of the season. He looks quite healthy now, having punched out 11 or more batters in three of his past four starts at the Triple-A level.
Cabrera, 23, is featured on virtually any ranking of the game’s top prospects one could find. He’s No. 30 on the midseason Top 100 over at MLB.com, No. 36 at The Athletic, No. 43 at FanGraphs and No. 74 at Baseball America. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel didn’t rank Cabrera in his Top 50 but listed him as one of “20 others who were considered.” Specific rankings aside, the broad-reaching consensus is that Cabrera is one of the most promising young arms in the sport.
Cabrera draws praise for a heater that sits in the 93-97 mph range but has scraped triple digits as well. He generates more grounders than whiffs with the fastball but complements it with a potentially plus slider and an improving changeup. Listed at 6’5″ and 217 pounds, he has the prototypical size and frame that many look for in ideal pitching prospects.
Based on the timing of his promotion, Cabrera will be controlled by the Marlins through at least the 2027 season. He’s being promoted late enough in the year that Super Two status is long since a consideration, although with any prospect promotion, it’s also key to note that future optional assignments could alter one or both of those trajectories. If Cabrera is in the Majors for the rest of the season, he’d accumulate 40 days of MLB service time, meaning he’d need just 132 days in the Majors in 2022 to reach a full year of service and remain on that post-2027 course for free agency.
Cabrera is the latest in a growing line of promising young Marlins starters to reach the Majors. While Miami is dealing with a handful of injuries at present, it’s hard for other clubs not to envy their collection of formidable arms. Cabrera joins Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, 2021 Rookie of the Year candidate Trevor Rogers, deadline acquisition Jesus Luzardo, Elieser Hernandez and currently injured top prospect Sixto Sanchez among the team’s current core of rotation options, and there are several others behind them. Most notably, last year’s No. 3 overall pick, right-hander Max Meyer, has been nothing short of dominant in Double-A this season.
The Marlins’ system is deeper in arms than in high-end bats, so it remains possible that GM Kim Ng and her staff will look to capitalize on that group of arms and turn some of it into controllable young bats via the offseason trade market. Catcher and center field, in particular, are areas where the Marlins find themselves with a long-term need.
Cardinals Activate Miles Mikolas
The Cardinals announced Friday that right-hander Miles Mikolas has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and will start tonight’s game. St. Louis placed right-hander Ryan Helsley on the 10-day injured list with a stress reaction in his right elbow, opening a spot on the active roster. Meanwhile, lefty Brandon Waddell has been placed on the Covid-19 injured list, tweets Zachary Silver of MLB.com, which opens a spot on the 40-man roster.
Tonight’s start is not only just Mikolas’ second appearance of the season — it’s second appearance overall dating back to the 2019 season. The right-hander parlayed an excellent three-year stint in Japan into a two-year, $15.5MM deal with the Cardinals, and he showed well enough in his return to MLB that the Cards signed him to a four-year, $68MM extension that spanned the 2020-23 seasons. Forearm surgery wiped out Mikolas’ entire 2020 season, however, and he’s spent the bulk of the current season on the injured list with continued forearm troubles.
Since returning to the Major Leagues in 2018, Mikolas has pitched quite well, logging a collective 3.45 earned run average with an 18.4 percent strikeout rate, a minuscule 3.9 percent walk rate and an above-average 48.4 percent ground-ball rate. Mikolas made the 2018 All-Star team and pitched well enough that season to land a sixth-place finish in National League Cy Young voting.
He’ll return to a Cardinals rotation that has been hammered by injuries throughout the summer but is now getting as close to full strength as it’s been in quite some time. Jack Flaherty returned to the staff a week ago after missing two months with an oblique tear, and the Cards hope to get Kwang Hyun Kim back from the 10-day injured list sooner than later. He made a rehab start just yesterday.
Flaherty and Mikolas join cornerstone Adam Wainwright and trade deadline newcomers J.A. Happ and Jon Lester in the rotation for now as the Cardinals do their best to chase down the second National League Wild Card spot. St. Louis has won seven of its past ten games to trim its deficit to three and a half games.
Mets Claim Heath Hembree, Transfer Jacob deGrom To 60-Day Injured List
The Mets have claimed right-handed reliever Heath Hembree off waivers from the Reds, per a club announcement. Ace Jacob deGrom was transferred from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The Mets have already been without deGrom for more than a month, and he wasn’t expected back until September anyhow. He’ll be eligible to return on Sept. 15.
Hembree, 32, was serving as the Reds’ closer earlier this summer before a rough few weeks caused his ERA to balloon up to a dismal 6.38 mark. Unsightly as that ERA is, Hembree was lights-out from late June through late July, pitching to a 1.42 ERA with a 19-to-5 K/BB ratio and racking up seven saves in a span of 12 2/3 innings. That hot streak obviously came in a very small sample, but it’s worth noting — and this is likely what drew the Mets to him — that Hembree has been among the game’s best in terms of missing bats all season.
Among the 321 pitchers who have thrown at least 40 innings this year, Hembree’s 38 percent strikeout rate is the game’s seventh-highest mark. He’s tied for 15th in that same set of pitchers with a 27.4 K-BB% and sits 18th with a 2.84 SIERA. He’s largely been done in by the long ball this season, serving up 10 dingers in 44 2/3 innings of work (2.13 HR/9). Seven of those home runs have come at the extremely hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, however, where Hembree’s ERA is north of 8.00. He’s been much better on the road, and a change of scenery could do him some good.
As for deGrom, the Mets said last week that he’d go at least another two weeks without throwing, so it’s unlikely he’d have been able to return much sooner than Sept. 15 anyhow. Once he starts throwing, he’ll need to build up sufficient arm strength to get back to the mound and hopefully make a few starts for the Mets down the stretch as they look to pull out of the spiral that has seen them fall from a comfortable lead in the NL East to a sub-.500 record and a five-game gap between the now-division-leading Braves.
Orioles Claim Chris Ellis, Designate Cesar Valdez For Assignment
The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve claimed righty Chris Ellis off waivers from the Rays and designated right-hander Cesar Valdez for assignment. Meanwhile, left-hander Ryan Hartman, who was designated for assignment earlier in the week, went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk.
Ellis, 28, pitched four shutout innings with seven strikeouts against the Orioles earlier this week. The Rays had selected him to the MLB roster in order to get a fresh arm in the ‘pen, but it proved to be a one-off appearance for Ellis in spite of that fine work. The O’s, who currently have the game’s worst record, have top priority on the waiver wire.
Ellis has had a rough season in Triple-A, pitching to a 6.32 ERA in 57 innings with below-average strikeout and walk rates and 14 home runs allowed. He’s had a rough couple of seasons in Triple-A but has had some success at that level in the past and comes to the Orioles with a bit of pedigree. He’s a former third-round pick and well-regarded prospect who was included in a pair of trades for notable big leaguers (Andrelton Simmons and Jaime Garcia), and the Royals liked him enough to select him in the Rule 5 Draft back in the 2018-19 offseason as well.
The Orioles are a good landing spot for a pitcher like Ellis, who has had some success in the upper minors but has yet to get much of a real look in the Majors. The O’s can afford to give him a look in the rotation or try him out of the bullpen if they like. Ellis also has all three minor league options remaining, so he can give them flexibility both now and in future seasons — if he sticks on the 40-man roster.
Valdez, 36, became the Orioles’ unlikely closer after signing a minor league deal in January 2020 and working his way back to the Major Leagues for the first time since 2017. His career arc has been atypical, to say the least, as Valdez debuted as a 25-year-old in 2010 and then did not appear in the Majors again until that 2017 return. The 2020-21 seasons mark the first time that he’s ever pitched in consecutive MLB seasons. Between MLB stints, he’s pitched professionally in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Taiwan.
Valdez didn’t simply return to the big leagues in 2020 — he thrived. Upon debuting with the Orioles, he pitched 14 1/3 innings and held opponents to two earned runs on seven hits and three walks with a dozen strikeouts. His success carried into 2021, too, at least in the early portion of the season. Valdez pitched to a 2.50 ERA with a sterling 21-to-4 K/BB ratio through his first 18 innings this season, accumulating eight saves along the way. Valdez found that success in spite of a “fastball” that barely averages 85 mph, relying heavily on a 78 mph changeup he refers to as the “dead fish.”
It’s been a swift decline since late May, however. Valdez was tagged for three runs in consecutive outings late in May and hasn’t been able to right the ship. Dating back to May 24, Valdez has pitched 27 1/3 innings and allowed a whopping 24 runs on 41 hits (including eight homers) and nine walks with 23 strikeouts.
It’s possible another club will take a look at Valdez on outright waivers, as he’s not yet arbitration eligible. He’s out of minor league options, though, meaning any club who does place a claim will need to carry him on the active roster or else try to pass him through waivers a second time before being able to send him down.
Braves Extend Travis d’Arnaud
The Braves announced Friday that they’ve signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a new two-year contract that guarantees him $16MM. The Wasserman client will earn $8MM in 2022 and in 2023, and there’s an $8MM club option for the 2024 season that does not have a buyout.
That $16MM guarantee matches the guarantee on the current two-year deal that d’Arnaud is playing out in Atlanta. He’d been slated to return to the free-agent market at season’s end, but the new contract now locks him in as the organization’s top catcher for at least another two seasons.
Selected by the Phillies with the No. 37 overall pick back in 2007, d’Arnaud quickly became a top prospect who was involved in a pair of trades involving Cy Young winners — the first sending Roy Halladay from Toronto to Philadelphia and the second sending R.A. Dickey from the Mets to the Blue Jays.
After debuting as a 24-year-old in 2013, d’Arnaud would go on to spend parts of seven seasons playing with the Mets. He showed the promise that made him one of the game’s most highly regarded minor leaguers at times, particularly in 2016 when he batted .268/.340/.485. However, d’Arnaud’s time with the Mets was marred by repeated injuries. In addition to undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2018, d’Arnaud also spent time on the injured list with a concussion, a broken finger, a strained rotator cuff and an elbow sprain (a separate one from the sprain that led to his Tommy John surgery).
Despite playing in parts of seven seasons as a Met, d’Arnaud only topped 100 games twice. The Mets released d’Arnaud in May 2019, and after signing with the Dodgers and making a lone plate appearance there, he was traded to the Rays in exchange for cash. Tampa Bay needed catching help with several backstops on the injured list, and what looked to be a short-term depth addition instead turned into a breakout showing that set the stage for d’Arnaud to eventually be paid $32MM from 2020-23.
With the Rays, d’Arnaud stepped up as the primary catcher and enjoyed one of his best and most productive seasons. He appeared in 92 games and tallied 365 plate appearances with Tampa Bay, batting .263/.323/.459 with 16 long balls. He parlayed that strong showing into what is now the first of a pair of two-year, $16MM deals in Atlanta.
D’Arnaud’s first season in Atlanta, while shortened due to the pandemic, was the most productive of his career. He played 44 of the Braves’ 60 games at catcher and turned in a huge .321/.386/.533 with nine homers and eight doubles in 184 plate appearances. He went on to bat .286/.380/.476 in 50 postseason plate appearances.
Things haven’t gone as well in 2021, though that’s again due to injury. After a lackluster start to the season, d’Arnaud went on the injured list in early May with a torn ligament in his thumb that required surgical repair. He returned just nine days ago and has gone 5-for-21 with a home run and four walks in that brief time. Overall, he’s batting .223/.277/.369 through 112 plate appearances this year.
The d’Arnaud extension solidifies the team’s catching spot for the next two seasons, though it also serves as something of a roadblock for 23-year-old William Contreras, who is tearing the cover off the ball in Triple-A this season. Contreras was originally promoted to the big league roster in the wake of d’Arnaud’s injury and got out to a strong start before fading badly. He batted just .204/.278/.387 in 158 Major League plate appearances this year but has posted a massive .313/.368/.583 slash (150 wRC+) with eight home runs in 125 plate appearances with Triple-A Gwinnett.
Extending d’Arnaud gives the Braves the luxury of breaking Contreras in as a backup or part-time option, but it’s certainly possible that he’ll find himself in a larger role over the next two seasons. He’d likely be the first option in the event of an injury to d’Arnaud, and he could simply hit his way into a larger share of the workload behind the plate. The National League could very well have the designated hitter in place next season, which would give the Braves the option of getting both into the lineup at times.
Behind Contreras, the Braves have 23-year-old Shea Langeliers rising through the system. The No. 9 overall pick in the 2019 draft, Langeliers is regarded as one of the top game’s top all-around prospects and is enjoying a strong season in Double-A, where he’s batted .267/.346/.524 (136 wRC+). Langeliers likely wouldn’t be an option until midway through the 2022 season or even into 23, so the d’Arnaud extension isn’t necessarily a sizable deterrent to his ascension through the ranks.
Of course, locking d’Arnaud up for the foreseeable future also frees the Braves to explore the possibility of including one of Contreras or Langeliers as part of an offseason trade package to address other areas of need. A relatively modest two-year for d’Arnaud certainly doesn’t make a trade of one of the promising young backstops a fait accompli, but it’s easier to part with some of that upside if the Braves feel confident that there’s a steady veteran in house.
By signing d’Arnaud now, the Braves sidestep the issue of searching for a catcher on the offseason market. A win-now club in their shoes wasn’t likely to just hand over the starting job to Contreras in 2022 without a contingency plan in place, and the market for catching help looks fairly light. Yan Gomes and d’Arnaud were likely to be the only two starting-caliber options in free agency, assuming the Cardinals do indeed finalize the Yadier Molina extension they’re reportedly discussing at the moment. Gomes might ultimately command a comparable price, though, and the Braves have already established a relationship with d’Arnaud. They clearly value both his on- and off-field contributions to the club, so it’s sensible to keep him around at a price point that won’t significantly impede their offseason dealings.
Even with d’Arnaud now on the books at $8MM next year, the Braves have just shy of $64MM on the books in 2022. They’ll owe arbitration raises to several key players (Dansby Swanson, Max Fried, Mike Soroka, Richard Rodriguez, Austin Riley) and still need to work out an extension for franchise cornerstone Freddie Freeman at some point. Even when factoring for a theoretical Freeman extension and arbitration raises, the Braves should still have more than $20MM — potentially quite a bit more, if a Freeman deal were to be backloaded — separating them from this year’s payroll level.
Twins Release Keon Broxton
The Twins have released veteran outfielder Keon Broxton, who’d been with their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, as first indicated on the Triple-A East transactions page at MiLB.com.
Broxton, 31, signed with Minnesota over the winter but never got a call to the big leagues this year even as the club has endured multiple injuries in the outfield. Byron Buxton, Alex Kirilloff and Jake Cave have all spent significant time on the injured list — Kirilloff’s season is over; Buxton has played in just 27 games — and Max Kepler has also missed some time.
Broxton would’ve seemed a natural fit to pick up some of those at-bats had he been productive, but that simply hasn’t been the case. The former Brewers center fielder has appeared in 73 games in St. Paul but posted just a .186/.288/.335 batting line with nine home runs. Broxton is 10-for-11 in stolen base attempts and has walked at a strong 11.7 percent clip, but his longstanding strikeout issues have climbed to new heights in 2021. He punched out in 44 percent of his plate appearances with the Saints prior to being cut loose.
Few players can match Broxton’s combination of power and speed, but sky-high strikeout tendencies have always come along with that tantalizing mix of tools. Even at his best with the 2016-17 Brewers, when Broxton hit .227/.318/.424 with 29 home runs and 44 steals in 707 trips to the plate, he fanned at a 37.6 percent pace.
It’s common, however, for contending clubs to pick up fleet-footed veterans like this in advance of September roster expansion. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Broxton land elsewhere on a minor league deal and eventually surface with a contender who can afford to carry a player who is primarily a pinch-runner or late-inning defensive specialist on its roster. Broxton is capable of playing all three outfield spots and carries a career mark of 19 Defensive Runs Saved in 2128 innings in center field. Overall, he’s a .209/.297/.388 hitter with 39 homers and 60 steals in 1026 big league plate appearances.
Cardinals, Yadier Molina Discussing Extension
Aug. 20: Both Molina and the team are encouraged by the recent talks, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who adds that they’re making progress toward a deal.
Aug. 19: The Cardinals and catcher Yadier Molina are in talks on a one-year extension that would cover the 2022 season, per Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). Molina is earning $9MM on his current one-year contract and is eyeing a guarantee of at least that same amount for next season.
Molina has spoken in the past of playing through his age-40 season, which would be the 2022 campaign. Re-signing him for the 2022 campaign would allow the Cards to use Molina and Andrew Knizner as bridges to catching prospect Ivan Herrera, who’s playing in Double-A as a 21-year-old this season.
Of course, a Molina extension would mean another year of rather sparse usage for the 26-year-old Knizner, who was a fairly well-regarded prospect himself but hasn’t had much of a look in the big leagues thanks to Molina’s heavy workload. Knizner is hitting .177/.295/.257 in 132 plate appearances this year and has just 207 total plate appearances since debuting in 2019.
The 39-year-old Molina, meanwhile, has racked up 353 plate appearances on the season and turned in a .256/.303/.378 batting line with eight home runs and 16 doubles, and he’s even gone 3-for-3 in stolen-base attempts — his first steals since the 2019 campaign. It’s a far cry from his peak production back in 2012, when he turned in an outstanding .315/.373/.501 slash and a career-high 22 home runs in 563 plate appearances, but this year’s production is more or less in line with Molina’s output in 2019-20. Molina’s 86 wRC+ indicates he’s been about 14 percent worse than a league-average hitter over that period of two-plus seasons, but his production is about in line with that of an average Major League catcher.
As usual, Molina has drawn standout marks for his defensive work this season. His 43 percent caught-stealing rate is 17 percent better than the 26 percent league average, and Defensive Runs Saved values him at plus-5 overall. Statcast and FanGraphs feel his framing work has dipped below average, but Molina rates about average in that category over at Baseball Prospectus and has a long track record of excellence in that regard.
Moreover, the Cardinals would surely value Molina’s influence over what can only be a younger pitching staff in 2022. The Cards have relied on a cast of mid- or late-30s starters this summer, due in part to injuries, but next year’s rotation ought to include Jack Flaherty, a returning Dakota Hudson (who’s been out all year after Tommy John surgery) and perhaps touted young arms like Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson. Molina’s experience and general receiving skills would be an obvious bonus to any collection of young arms.
From a payroll vantage point, a contract worth $9MM-plus for Molina shouldn’t hamper the Cards’ ability to add this offseason. They currently have about $90MM in guaranteed contracts on the books, which is nearly $80MM shy of their current payroll. That mark doesn’t include forthcoming arbitration raises for Jack Flaherty, Harrison Bader, Alex Reyes, Jordan Hicks, Giovanny Gallegos, Tyler O’Neill or the aforementioned Hudson, but even with those salary boosts the Cardinals will have tens of million in separation from their current payroll level.
It stands to reason that if the Cardinals are serious about hammering out another one-year deal with one franchise cornerstone, they’ll look to do so with the other franchise icon currently on the roster: Adam Wainwright. The 39-year-old right-hander is in the midst of a brilliant season and seemingly showing no signs of slowing down. If he wants to continue his career beyond the current season, the front office will surely explore the possibility of keeping him a lifelong Cardinal.
Judge Denies Request For Permanent Restraining Order Against Trevor Bauer
5:11 pm: As expected, Bauer’s administrative leave has been extended through August 27, per various reporters (including Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times).
3:15 pm: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman issued a ruling today denying a long-term restraining order to the woman who has accused Trevor Bauer of sexual assault, per Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times. The ruling brings to a close the civil hearing that has been ongoing throughout the current week.
Bauer did not testify at this week’s hearing, instead invoking his fifth amendment rights. He’s still the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and of an investigation under Major League Baseball’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. Bauer is currently on paid administrative leave, which is set to expire tomorrow. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that with criminal and MLB investigations still ongoing, that leave will likely once again be extended by mutual agreement between MLB and the Players Association.
There are several key points to be emphasized with regard to where things stand at present. As previously noted, Bauer is still the subject of multiple investigations. Today’s ruling was neither a declaration of Bauer’s innocence nor guilt with regard to the woman’s allegations. Rather, it was a ruling from the court that Bauer does not pose a continued threat to the alleged victim. Similarly, the determination that the accuser does not require long-term protection against Bauer is not legally reflective of his guilt or innocence; the alleged victim and the district attorney can still bring forth charges pursuant to Bauer’s purported actions.
Just as the absence of a restraining order does not preclude criminal charges, the ruling also does not preclude a suspension from commissioner Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball. The league’s sexual assault policy gives Manfred the power to implement a suspension even in the absence of criminal charges, as we’ve seen on numerous occasions where domestic violence charges were dropped by the alleged victims. It’s also unclear whether newly surfaced allegations from a woman in Ohio that date back to last summer will be factored into the league’s decision on any punitive measures against Bauer.
While today’s ruling represents a notable step in the process, it does not bring about anything in the way of resolution for Bauer or the Dodgers. The pitcher’s long-term outlook remains unclear, and the league could well wait until the criminal investigation (and any subsequent charges, if pressed) is resolved before determining whether to levy its own suspension.