Source: May 23, Bauer suspension arbitration

NEW YORK — The hearing in which an arbitrator will review the appeal of Trevor Bauer against the unprecedented two-year suspension MLB imposed on him under the league’s policy against dating violence will begin May 23, a person familiar with the matter said.

The source spoke to The Associated Press on Friday on condition of anonymity because the date had not been announced.

Bauer was suspended on April 29 by Commissioner Rob Manfred. If the sanction is not modified, it will cost the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher just over $60 million of his $102 million three-year contract. The player immediately said that he would contest it.

A San Diego woman the pitcher met on social media says Bauer beat and sexually assaulted her last year. She later sought a restraining order, but was denied.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles said in February that there was insufficient evidence to show the woman’s allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.

Bauer, who hasn’t played since the woman’s claims came to light last summer and MLB began its investigation, has repeatedly said that everything that happened between him and the woman was by mutual consent.

For her part, Bauer sued the woman in federal court less than three months after prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges against her.

According to the suit, “the damages to Mr. Bauer have been extreme” after the woman claimed the player rendered her unconscious by suffocation, repeatedly hit her and had anal sex with her without her consent during two sexual encounters last year.

The pitcher has said that they both had rough sex at his house in Pasadena, at her suggestion, and both stuck to what they had agreed to. Each meeting ended with jokes between the two and she spent the night at his house, she added.

Two Ohio women also accused the pitcher of sexual misconduct.

Bauer’s attorneys have said the claim by the first Ohio woman is “categorically false.” Bauer has said he had “casual and fully consensual” sex with the other Ohio woman from 2013 to 2018 and that none of her encounters ever “involved any act not agreed upon, much less illegal.”

The appeal will be heard by a three-person panel, chaired by independent arbitrator Martin Scheinman. It will include a representative from Major League Baseball and another from the players’ union.