Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer is heading back to play major league baseball.

On Thursday, Major League Baseball announced in a statement that Bauer, which the league suspended in April for violating its joint domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse policy, has been reinstated.

CNN and ESPN reported that Bauer had his suspension reduced by an arbitrator from 324 games to 194.

In a statement, MLB said that although the neutral arbitrator "affirmed that Trevor Bauer violated Major League Baseball's Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy" and thought "a longer suspension was warranted," they will abide by the decision.

In a statement on Twitter, Bauer's employer said they were informed of the arbitrator's decision Thursday.

"We have just been informed of the arbitrator’s ruling and will comment as soon as practical," the team said.

Bauer also took to Twitter to express his excitement at getting back to playing.

"Can't wait to see y'all out at a stadium soon!" Bauer tweeted.

The 2020 National League Cy Young winner was accused by a woman of punching and choking her during two sexual encounters.

Bauer, who hadn't appeared in a game since June 2021, has repeatedly denied the accusations, claiming his encounters with the woman were consensual.

A judge, who previously rescinded a restraining order the woman had against Bauer, has stated that the woman's testimony confirmed the Dodgers player followed the boundaries the woman had set for him during their sexual encounters.

In February, the media outlets reported that the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office declined to press criminal charges against Bauer.

Following an investigation, MLB placed Bauer on unpaid administrative leave. Bauer appealed the decision, and on Thursday, the media outlets reported that arbitrator Martin Scheinman credited him for the time served on MLB's restricted list.

According to ESPN, the 31-year-old will be docked pay for the 50 games of the 2023 season and will be officially reinstated Friday.

MIAMI (AP) — Derek Jeter announced a surprise departure from the Miami Marlins after 4 1/2 mostly unsuccessful years that didn't come remotely close to matching his success as a player for the New York Yankees.

Jeter became CEO of the Marlins in September 2017 when Bruce Sherman bought the team from Jeffrey Loria.

A five-time World Series champion during a playing career spent entirely with the Yankees from 1995-2014, Jeter was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 2020.

Miami went 218-327 during his four seasons at the helm, finishing with a winning record only once at 31-29 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

In an unprecedented move, Jeter released a statement through PR Newswire and not through the team.

"We had a vision five years ago to turn the Marlins franchise around, and as CEO, I have been proud to put my name and reputation on the line to make our plan a reality," Jeter said. "Through hard work, trust and accountability, we transformed every aspect of the franchise, reshaping the workforce, and developing a long-term strategic plan for success."

Jeter became the league's first Black CEO in September 2017, the Associated Press reported.

As the team searches for a new CEO, the team's general manager, Kim Ng, who became the first female GM in a major professional sport in North America when Jeter brought her on in 2020, will likely take over, the AP reported.

JUPITER, Fla. — Monday marks the first day of negotiations between MLB and MLBPA.

Teams were supposed to begin spring training earlier this month.

But that may not happen until March 5, and that’s the earliest estimate.

That pushes back Opening Day until at least March 31.

Negotiators, including Colorado Rockies CEO Dick Monfort and Bruce Meyer, will discuss a list of proposals at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida.

Until now, all talks during the lockout had been in New York at the offices of MLB and the players’ association.

Monday’s session will be just the seventh on core economics since the lockout started December 2, and the sides have met on consecutive days just once, on January 24 and 25.

MLB said Friday that it intended to have meetings with the union every day in the coming week.

MLB told the union that Feb. 28 is the last possible day to reach an agreement.

If an agreement is not reached in time, it would be the first time since 1995 that MLB has missed games due to a work stoppage.

Max Scherzer won’t be starting spring training workouts Wednesday in the warmth of Mets camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Marcus Stroman won’t be shaking off rust amid the cactus at the Cubs complex in Mesa, Arizona.

No crack of bats or thwacks of balls popping into mitts.

No free agents putting on new uniforms for the first time.

No veterans hugging teammates following months apart.

No kids leaning on chain-link fences waiting for autographs.

No sign of getting ready for an opening day that may not happen on March 31.

Not even a negotiating session.

Neither side made any public statement this week to acknowledge the obvious: Spring training is failing to start on schedule for the first time since 1995, victim of a lockout that stretches into its 77th day Wednesday as players and management squabble over how to apportion an industry with $10 billion annual revenue.

So instead of debating RBIs and ERAs, Major League Baseball has been reduced to disputing CBTs and AAVs.

Pitchers and catchers won't be reporting to camp as scheduled, but MLB doesn't plan to announce a disruption to spring training until Feb. 26 exhibition openers can't be played.

If talks stretch into March — all signs are they will— season openers are likely to be pushed back.

"I am an optimist and I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular schedule,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said at a news conference last Thursday. “I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry, and we’re committed to making an agreement in an effort to avoid that.”

Those were Manfred's first comments to media since Dec. 2, the day baseball's ninth work stoppage began, its first since 1995.

Pace of bargaining has been even slower than pace of games.

There have been just five negotiating sessions on core economics since the lockout started: a Zoom gathering on Jan. 13 followed by in-person meetings on Jan. 24-25 and Feb. 1 and 12. Reliever Andrew Miller has been the only player to attend in person and Rockies CEO Dick Montfort the only owner.

Players have demanded significant change, angered that payrolls were $4.05 billion last year, down 4.6% from their record high of just under $4.25 billion in 2017, the first year of the just-expired labor contract.

The union has asked for salary arbitration eligibility to be expanded to two years of major league service, its level from 1974-86, proposed a decrease in revenue sharing and wants new methods for top young players to be credited with additional service time, which the union says would address its allegations of service time manipulation.

Management has said it won't consider cutting revenue sharing or expanding arbitration. The sides are far apart on minimum salaries, the amount of a proposed bonus pool for young stars, and luxury tax thresholds and rates.

“The league was not required to declare a lockout,” union head Tony Clark said on Dec. 2 in his only comments to media since the lockout began. “Players consider it unnecessary and provocative. This lockout won't pressure or intimate players into a deal that they don't believe is fair.”

Manfred said the lockout was “defensive,” citing the union's decision to strike late in the 1994 season, which led to a 7 1/2-month stoppage and the first canceled World Series in 90 years.

“If you play without an agreement, you’re vulnerable to a strike at any point in time,” he said. “What happened in 1994 is the MLBPA picked August, when we were most vulnerable because of the proximity of the large revenue dollars associated with the postseason. We wanted to take that option away and try to force the parties to deal with the issues and get an agreement now, which is what we continue to believe is best for the fans.”

Both sides seem to believe the other won't make significant moves until the verge of opening day being threatened. Manfred said last week that perhaps four weeks of training would be needed, with additional time for ratification and players to travel to camps.

When players were locked out in 1990, the sides said a minimum three weeks of training were needed ahead of April 2 openers. When March 12 passed without an agreement, MLB said it would wait four additional days before making any announcement. Owners made a new proposal on March 16, leading to weekend negotiations and the announcement of an agreement at 1:18 a.m. EST on March 19.

Training camps opened March 20, exhibition games began March 26 and opening day was pushed back a week to April 9. After announcing on the night of the agreement that a 158-game schedule was contemplated, the sides struck a deal on March 22 to extend the end of the regular season by three days and have each team play a full 162.

In the meantime, these negotiations appear to be a game of chicken.

“The issues that the players are interested in engaging on has been the same leading up to bargaining, throughout bargaining and will continue to be the same moving forward," Clark said on the day the lockout began. "A fair contract that maintains a market system and addresses the competitive integrity issues that we’ve highlighted for some time.”

IRVING, Texas —

Major League Baseball plunged into its first work stoppage in a quarter-century when the sport's collective bargaining agreement expired Wednesday night and owners immediately locked out players in a move that threatens spring training and opening day.

The strategy, management's equivalent of a strike under federal labor law, ended the sport's labor peace after 9,740 days over 26 1/2 years.

Teams decided to force the long-anticipated confrontation during an offseason rather than risk players walking out during the summer, as they did in 1994. Players and owners had successfully reached four consecutive agreements without a work stoppage, but they have been accelerating toward a clash for more than two years.

Talks that started last spring ended Wednesday after a brief session of mere minutes with the sides far apart on the dozens of key economic issues. Management's negotiators left the union's hotel about nine hours before the deal lapsed at 11:59 p.m. EST, and players said MLB did not make any new central economic proposals this week.

MLB's 30 controlling owners held a brief digital meeting to reaffirm their lockout decision, and MLB delivered the announcement of its fourth-ever lockout — to go along with five strikes — in an emailed letter to the Major League Baseball Players Association.

This stoppage began 30 days after Atlanta's World Series win capped a complete season following a pandemic-shortened 2020 played in empty ballparks. The lockout's immediate impact is to banish players from team workout facilities and weight rooms while perhaps chilling ticket sales for 2022.

The union demanded change following anger over a declining average salary, middle-class players forced out by teams concentrating payroll on the wealthy and veterans jettisoned in favor of lower-paid youth, especially among clubs tearing down their rosters to rebuild.

"As players we see major problems with it," New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer said of the 2016 agreement. "First and foremost, we see a competition problem and how teams are behaving because of certain rules that are within that, and adjustments have to be made because of that in order to bring out the competition."

Eleven weeks remain until pitchers and catchers are to report for spring training on Feb. 16, leaving about 70 days to reach a deal allowing for an on-time start. Opening day is set for March 31, and a minimum of three weeks of organized workouts have been required in the past.

Management, intent on preserving salary restraints gained in recent decades, rejected the union's requests for what teams regarded as significant alterations to the sport's economic structure, including lowering service time needed for free agency and salary arbitration.

Many clubs scrambled to add players ahead of a lockout and an expected signing freeze, committing to more than $1.9 billion in new contracts — including a one-day record of more than $1.4 billion Wednesday.

"It did feel like at least certain groups of free agents were moving more quickly the last few days," Pittsburgh general manager Ben Cherington said.

Two of the eight members of the union's executive subcommittee signed big deals: Texas infielder Marcus Semien ($175 million) and Scherzer ($130 million).

"This is actually kind of fun," Scherzer said. "I'm a fan of the game, and to watch everybody sign right now, to actually see teams competing in this kind of timely fashion, it's been refreshing because we've seen freezes for the past several offseasons."

No player remains active from the 232-day strike that cut short the 1994 season, led to the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years and caused the 1995 season to start late. That stoppage ended only when a federal judge — future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor — issued an injunction forcing owners to restore the work rules of the expired labor contract.

The average salary dropped from $1.17 million before the strike to $1.11 million but then resumed its seemingly inexorable rise. It peaked at just under $4.1 million in 2017, the first season of the latest CBA, but likely will fall to about $3.7 million when this year's final figures are calculated.

That money is concentrated heavily at the top of the salary structure. Among approximately 1,955 players who signed major league contracts at any point going into the regular season's final month, 112 had earned $10 million or more this year as of Aug. 31, of which 40 made at least $20 million, including prorated shares of signing bonuses.

There were 1,397 earning under $1 million, of which 1,271 were at $600,000 or less and 332 under $100,000, a group of younger players who shuttle back and forth to the minors.

Union head Tony Clark, a former All-Star first baseman who became executive director following Michael Weiner's death in 2013, said players are united and understand the need to stick together to achieve common goals. The sides are still litigating over the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, sniping over how to long the season could have been and taking their positions before a neutral arbitrator.

The union has withheld licensing money, as it usually does going into bargaining; cash, U.S. Treasury securities and investments totaled $178.5 million last Dec. 31, according to a financial disclosure form filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

"We have a pretty big war chest behind us of money that we can allocate to players," Scherzer said.

Some player agents have speculated that management's credit lines already may be pressured following income deprivation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but the clubs' finances are more opaque publicly than that of the union, making it difficult to ascertain comparative financial strength to withstand a lengthy work stoppage.

Rob Manfred, who succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner in 2015 following a quarter-century as an MLB labor negotiator, made clear last month that management preferred an offseason lockout to a midseason strike.

"We've been down this path. We locked out in '89-'90," he said. "I don't think '94 worked out too great for anybody. I think when you look at other sports, the pattern has become to control the timing of the labor dispute and try to minimize the prospect of actual disruption of the season. That's what it's about. It's avoiding doing damage to the season."

Scott Boras, who negotiated Scherzer's deal and shortstop Corey Seager's $325 million contract with Texas, has pushed for the union to insist on change to decrease the incentive for lowering payrolls during rebuilding.

"Sometimes the rules of the game require them to do things that are not in the best interest of the game," Boras said, "for them to be a better competitor for next year, they have to do things that the rules direct them to do."

Former Reds pitcher and current Dodger, Trevor Bauer was placed on administrative leave Friday by Major League Baseball following an assault allegation earlier this week.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles police announced they were investigating an “assault that took place at the hands of Mr. Bauer” where the woman “suffered severe physical and emotional pain,” attorney Marc Garelick said.

Jon Fetterolf, Bauer’s co-agent, disputed the allegations that Bauer committed any nonconsensual violence. He said Bauer met the woman in April, and the two had “a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship initiated” by the woman.

Two Cincinnati Reds will start for the National League in the 2021 All-Star Game, Major League Baseball officials announced Thursday.

Right-fielder Nick Castellanos and outfielder Jesse Winker will each make their inaugural appearances in the All-Star Game on July 13 at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado.

They join a roster of other high-profile players, including the Giants’ Buster Posey — making his fifth appearance as an All-Star — and the Royals’ Salvador Perez, who is poised to make his sixth All-Star start as catcher.

Castellanos has a batting average of .346 and an OPS of 1.002. Winker “has taken his offensive production to another level this season,” MLB officials wrote, “already setting career highs in homers (19 entering Thursday) and RBIs (48 entering Thursday).”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto served a one-game suspension from Major League Baseball on Tuesday, three days after he was ejected for arguing with an umpire.

Votto was already slated to rest in the finale of a two-game series at Minnesota, an afternoon start following a 12-inning contest on Monday night that was MLB’s longest game of the season at 5:16. Shortly before first pitch, the Reds announced Votto was serving his punishment.

Votto and Reds manager David Bell were tossed in the first inning on Saturday at San Diego after a heated spat with home plate umpire Ryan Additon after Votto was called out on a checked swing. Padres catcher Webster Rivas appealed after Votto offered at a high, outside pitch, and third base umpire Chris Guccione confirmed that Votto went around.

Bell and coaches Delino DeShields and Freddie Benavides had to keep Votto away from Additon, who then ejected the player and the manager. Crew chief Jim Reynolds said after the game that Votto was booted because he “just lost control.”

Votto, in his 15th season with the Reds, has three homers and 13 RBIs in 14 games since returning from a month-plus absence because of a broken thumb.

Major League Baseball on Tuesday announced that it would begin cracking down on pitchers who are using sticky substances on baseballs in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

In a press release, MLB said that it would begin handing out 10-game suspensions to any pitcher caught using a foreign substance beginning June 21.

"I understand there's a history of foreign substances being used on the ball, but what we are seeing today is objectively far different, with much tackier substances being used more frequently than ever before," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "It has become clear that the use of foreign substances has generally morphed from trying to get a better grip on the ball into something else – an unfair competitive advantage that is creating a lack of action and an uneven playing field."

MLB has prohibited the use of foreign substances on baseballs for decades. But its decision to step up enforcement of the rule comes as the sport grapples with increased accusations of cheating and as offensive production has reached an all-time low.

In recent years, players have grumbled about what some have described as an "open secret" in baseball — pitchers using sticky substances to better grip a baseball to increase spin rate.

"Spin rate" refers to how much a ball spins when it leaves a pitcher's hand. Increasing the spin can cause a curveball to "curve" more or cause a fastball to appear to a hitter as if it is "rising." In recent years, coaches and front office personnel have developed new methods to track spin rate, making it an integral part of the modern game.

The sticky substances used by pitchers vary. According to The Athletic, pitchers have been known to use pine tar, vaseline and hair gel to better grip baseballs. There are also several proprietary products on the market, like Spider Tack — originally developed for professional lifters so they can better grip weights. Pitchers have even resorted to making homemade concoctions that include ingredients like sunscreen, rosin and boiled Coca-Cola.

Accusations came to a head last week when Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson accused Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole of using foreign substances, noting that his spin rate decreased shortly after four minor-leaguers got suspended over sticky baseballs.

Cole denied Donaldson's accusations but did not answer directly when asked if he had ever used Spider Tack.

"I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest," Cole said after a long pause, according to Yahoo. "There are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players, from the last generation of players to this generation of players. I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard, and I've stood pretty firm in terms of that, in terms of the communication between our peers and whatnot."

The new enforcement also comes as baseball is seeing historically low offensive numbers.

The advancements in pitching have led to soaring strikeout rates in recent years. Combined with other factors like the increased use of the infield shift and a new baseball that doesn't fly as far as in recent years, baseball has seen historically low offensive numbers in the modern game.

As of Tuesday morning, MLB hitters were hitting a collective .238 in 2021 — the second-lowest average of all time, trailing only 1968. Following the 1968 season, the MLB decided to lower the mound in an attempt to boost the offense.

Pitchers are also recording more strikeouts per game than at any other time in baseball history, continuing a trend that has seen strikeouts climb to record levels every year since 2008.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto hit his 300th home run Friday night.

Votto went yard in the bottom of the third off Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta to bring base runner Nick Castellanos home on the way to an 8-6 victory.

Votto got a curtain call from Cincinnati fans and drove in three runs.

The 37-year-old six-time all-star has been a staple on the Reds roster since he was promoted from Louisville in 2007.

Nick Senzel lined a two-run homer, and Eugenio Suárez added a solo shot. The Reds won for the third time in four games after losing seven in a row. The Cubs scored twice in the ninth against relievers Carson Fulmer and Lucas Sims. Tejay Antone took over with two outs and got David Bote to ground out with the bases loaded for his first career save.