Next in Trevor Bauer’s MLB fight: a private judge in an unprecedented baseball case

One of the most powerful people in Major League Baseball has been handing down judgments behind the scenes for decades, always in the middle of some of the game’s most high-stakes disputes:

In 1975, it was MLB vs. free-agency rights for players.

In 2013, it was MLB vs. superstar Alex Rodriguez.

And now it’s MLB vs. Trevor Bauer.

This person in power is the impartial arbitrator, a high-wire job in baseball that dates to 1970. It has belonged to private judges who are tasked with making rulings in contentious cases off the field, including the performance-enhancing drug suspension of Rodriguez and soon the upcoming appeal of Bauer, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher accused of assaulting women during sex.

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