Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and Hart alumnus Trevor Bauer has settled his defamation suit against the San Diego woman who accused him of sexual assault — without any money exchanging hands in the settlement — according to a statement released by his attorneys.
“Trevor Bauer and Linsey Hill have settled all outstanding litigation,” the statement from Bauer’s attorneys, Jon Fetterolf and Shawn Holley, reads. “Both of their respective claims have been withdrawn with prejudice, effective today. Mr. Bauer did not make — and has never made — any payments to Ms. Hill, including to resolve their litigation. With this matter now at rest, Mr. Bauer can focus completely on baseball.”
Hill accused Bauer of sexually assaulting her in 2021, prompting Major League Baseball to place him on administrative leave before ultimately dishing out the longest suspension under the current terms of the league’s policy against sexual assault and domestic violence. Once he was officially suspended in 2022, Bauer filed a defamation suit against Hill.
That lawsuit has now been settled, with the only payment being from Hill’s insurance company to her for $300,000, according to a statement sent by her attorney, Bryan Freedman, to TMZ.
“In what turned out to be an outstanding resolution for Linsey, neither Linsey nor anyone on her behalf paid anything to Bauer. Not a single dollar,” Freedman told TMZ. “Even better, Linsey received $300,000 from her insurance company. Based on that payment, Linsey agreed to settle the lawsuit. Now that the lawsuit is over, Linsey looks forward to helping others.”
Bauer had his 324-game suspension reduced to 194 games by an independent arbitrator in December 2022. The arbitrator ruled that Bauer did violate the league’s sexual assault policy, according to a statement released by MLB at the time, but chose to reduce the number of games he was suspended for.
“While we believe a longer suspension was warranted, MLB will abide by the neutral arbitrator’s decision, which upholds baseball’s longest-ever active player suspension for sexual assault or domestic violence,” the statement read.
The Dodgers released Bauer shortly after, and with no team claiming him on waivers, he chose to sign with the Yokohama DeNa Baystars of the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan. The Dodgers were left on the hook for the remainder of the three-year, $102 million contract he signed prior to the 2021 season. The independent arbitrator ruled that Bauer would not be paid for 50 games in 2023, bringing the total amount of money Bauer lost due to suspension to $37.5 million.
Bauer is free to pursue a contract with a Major League team once his one-year contract with the Baystars expires after the current season. He has posted a 10-4 record with a 2.76 ERA with 130 strikeouts in 130.2 innings pitched in Japan this year.
Bauer released a video via X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday in which he claimed that he was targeted by Hill due to his net worth and explained why he sued her for defamation and why he settled for no money.
2 years later and I can finally talk about this ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/o6jFqMzY05
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) October 2, 2023
“Next victim. Star pitcher for the Dodgers,” Hill allegedly sent via text to a friend prior to meeting Bauer, he said.
During the initial legal proceedings, Bauer found out that he was missing “critical information” that was “deliberately and unlawfully concealed from me and my legal team.” That led him to file the defamation suit, where more information was brought up in discovery.
One piece of information was a video that Hill took the morning of May 16, the morning after the alleged sexual assault took place at Bauer’s residence. Bauer said that he was able to confirm when the video was taken with metadata.
The video shows Hill lying next to Bauer in a bed while he sleeps and, in Bauer’s words, “smirking in the camera without a care in the world or any marks on her face.”
Once the video was shown to Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman, she rejected Hill’s request for a restraining order, Bauer said in the video. He then said that the judge ruled that “no sexual assault or nonconsensual conduct took place.”
Bauer finished the video by again denying the sexual assault and saying that he is looking forward to focusing on playing baseball.
“The fact is, I was never arrested, I was never charged with a crime and I won the only legal proceeding that took place without my side of the story even being heard,” Bauer said. “Most importantly, as I’ve said from day one, I never sexually assaulted Linsey Hill, or anyone else.
“Over the past two years, I’ve been forced to defend my integrity and my reputation in a very public setting, but hopefully, this is the last time I have to do so as I’d prefer to just remain focused on doing my job, winning baseball games and entertaining fans around the world,” he said. “Today, I’m happy to be moving on with my life.”