Bauer had said his unhappiness came from always striving for new goals. With a two-year suspension over sexual assault allegations, M.L.B. is moving on without him.
This was before his biggest dreams began to blossom, and before his career fell apart. This was Trevor Bauer from three years ago, over lunch in suburban Cleveland, describing the forces that drove him. “I want to be a billionaire,” Bauer said, the same way you might order a sandwich. “Not because I care about the money at all, just because that’s the highest level of achievement in the business world. That’s a marker of a successful business person. So I would want to do it just to do it. “I want to win three Cy Youngs to do it. I want to win a World Series to do it. When I went to college, I wanted to win the Golden Spikes Award, and when I won it I was like, ‘OK, great,’ and I moved on to the next thing. It’s part of what makes me somewhat unhappy a lot in my life, is I don’t celebrate my successes. I just move on to the next one.” Bauer would win his first Cy Young Award the following year, for Cincinnati, and then sign a three-year, $102 million contract with his hometown team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in February 2021. He pitched his final game for them last June, and may not pitch again for a very long time. Major League Baseball suspended Bauer for two years on Friday for violating the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy. The suspension covers 324 games, without pay, and runs into the 2024 season. Bauer,31, had been on administrative leave with pay since last July 2, and because he did not reach an agreement on a penalty, he was not given credit retroactively for time served. “In the strongest possible terms, I deny committing any violation of the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy,” Bauer said in a statement.
