Domingo German’s first pitch of the 2021 season will be his first in a major-league game since September 18, 2019, just before he was suspended what turned out to be 81 games – the rest of that season and postseason, and what ended up as the entirety of 2020 – for a domestic violence incident.
More than 18 months will have elapsed between game action, and when asked about German as a rotation option during an appearance on WFAN’s Moose & Maggie Show Friday, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said there is some “curiosity there.”
“He’s clearly a talented player who was a borderline elite starter when we lost him at the end of 2019, and serving his suspension lost a calendar year,” Cashman said. “He played winter ball in the Dominican Republic to try to knock the rust off, and was able to do some of that in that, but it’s a curiosity.”
German had a 7.16 ERA in five starts for the Toros del Este in the Dominican Winter League, so the numbers didn’t look great, but it was more about rhythm than results.
“None of us have had an in-person with him, but we got a lot of good feedback from the Dominican that the stuff was the same,” Cashman said. “He has the talent and the arm is still there, but now, we just have to really assess where he’s at, and that will come in Spring Training.”
German’s incident is the second domestic violence suspension the Yankees have had to deal with in recent years (along with Aroldis Chapman’s 30-game ban in 2016), but like with Chapman, Cashman is confident German can put it in the past, and the team will be there to support him if he needs it.
“We’re going to rely on him more than anything, because everything starts with the individual’s responsibility on how they go about their business,” Cashman said, “but we have a network of coaches here and a support team with the mental skills department he can turn to, including his teammates, who care a great deal about him. We try to set up a family culture, and the family is here to support when we need them. All you have to do is ask for it, and we’re here to provide it.”
That’s a scenario that is the same throughout the organization, and is one the Yankees have proven in situations like CC Sabathia’s trip to rehab.
“We’ll do our best to manage that for any employee – that’s part of running a business or a family. The Steinbrenner family is intent on having this organization run similarly on all ends,” Cashman said. “We’ve been able to do that, whether it’s publicly with a situation like CC’s or in private. Sometimes these things don’t go as well as you want or follow the road that you want, but I’ve been around it as long as I’ve been here – I was working with Steve Howe when Gene Michael was the GM. There are a lot of things different people deal with in their lives, and we’re always here to help them.”
Listen to Cashman’s entire segment with Moose & Maggie below:
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