Trevor Bauer pitches halfway around the world these days. On the day before he was scheduled to make his second start of the season, he signed a sworn statement in support of a lawsuit he filed last year in Los Angeles Superior Court. The final line of the statement: “Executed on this 11th day of April, 2025, at Yokohama, Japan.”
Bauer has not pitched in the major leagues since playing for the Dodgers in 2021, when a woman named Lindsey Hill accused him of sexual assault. His latest court fight against Hill stalled on Wednesday, and he remains tangled in a legal battle in Arizona as well.
Bauer and Hill settled two lawsuits two years ago — he had sued her for defamation; she had sued him for assault and sexual battery — and agreed that neither party had paid any money to the other. In an email to Bauer’s attorneys, Hill’s attorneys said she would receive $300,000 from her insurance policy.
On social media, Hill subsequently claimed Bauer “handed back an insurance sum to me that was meant for him in order for me to drop my countersuit.”
Bauer sued her last October, citing 21 similar claims on a podcast or on social media — all of them alleged violations of a settlement provision forbidding her from saying Bauer or any representative “paid her any money as consideration for the settlement.” Each alleged violation cost $10,000, according to the terms of the settlement agreement.
In an April 11 court filing, Bauer’s attorneys asked the court to award him $307,481.49 in damages, fees, costs and interest — that is, more than what Hill received from the insurance policy.
Hill has not contested or even responded to the suit. If a party does not oppose a suit, that usually means victory by default for the other party.
However, for the second time in three months, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Crowley denied Bauer a default ruling.
In February, he told Bauer’s attorneys they had not made a strong enough case to show Hill had violated the settlement agreement. On Wednesday, he told Bauer’s attorneys they had not justified their fees.
According to their court filing, one attorney was paid $485 per hour to collect and preserve Hill’s tweets.
Bauer’s attorneys said they would address Crowley’s concerns. The judge said he would revisit the matter in June.
That is the same month an Arizona woman named Darcy Esemonu is scheduled to go on trial for felony charges that include defrauding Bauer. An indictment against her was unsealed last April; the trial date has been delayed three times.
In 2022, Esemonu sued Bauer, alleging sexual assault. Bauer countersued, claiming fraud and extortion — in particular, that she claimed he had gotten her pregnant and demanded millions. According to court filings, Esemonu never had the baby; Bauer said that was because she never was pregnant and Esemonu said that was because she miscarried.
The civil cases were put on hold pending the conclusion of the criminal trial, over Bauer’s objection.
“It is critically important that this litigation proceed expeditiously so Mr. Bauer can clear his name and return to his job pitching in Major League Baseball,” his attorneys argued in a court filing last April. “Allowing Ms. Esemonu’s criminal indictment to prolong this case — and let her false accusations of sexual assault hang over Mr. Bauer — will harm Mr. Bauer’s reputation and ability to obtain employment.”
The Dodgers signed Bauer, the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner, to a three-year, $102-million contract before the 2021 season. He started 17 games for them.
Hill was denied a restraining order against Bauer, and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file charges against him. Bauer calls Hill’s allegations “a lie.”
However, MLB can suspend a player even if he has not been charged with a crime. In 2022, the league suspended Bauer after an investigation that considered the allegations of Hill and other women, but not Esemonu.
Bauer’s suspension — originally 324 games; upheld but reduced by a neutral arbitrator to 194 games — remains the longest in MLB history for violation of the league’s policy on sexual assault and domestic violence.
No major league team has signed Bauer since he was reinstated in December 2022 and then released by the Dodgers the following month. He played in Japan in 2023 and in Mexico last year. He returned to Japan this year.
Bauer, 34, is 0-3 with a 5.00 earned-run average for Yokohama so far this season. He went 10-0 with a 2.48 ERA for the Mexico City Red Devils last season and 10-4 with a 2.76 ERA for Yokohama in 2023.
Earlier this month, a fan on Twitter suggested to Bauer no major league team ever would sign him because the team would “have to deal with horrible media.”
Responded Bauer: “No they won’t. There won’t be any horrible media. It’ll be two days of 50/50 mix and then everyone will forget about it and 8 months or so later the team will be in the playoffs contending for a World Series.”
