Three factors worked against Bauer here, and none of them involve his alleged 'crime' (kinky sex with an extortionist).
#1 This allows the Dodgers to get out of the contract without having to pay anything. That's the biggest factor. The Dodgers didn't want to keep Bauer and they're the big spender of the entire league.
#2 Additionally, Manfred had a really good baseball reporter fired because he wrote very mildly critical things about Manfred (Ken Rosenthal). Bauer has been outspoken in his criticism of Manfred and MLB so it doesn't surprise me they went for the blackball card. Just a spite move.
#3 Racism also seems to have played a factor, as there are many examples of diverse domestic violence offenders across baseball that have had very light punishments in comparison (Ozuna got what, 20 games)? And they legit did bad things (2 police witnessed Ozuna beat his wife), whereas Bauer committed no crime at all.
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