Back on September 19th, 2019, Yankees pitcher, Domingo German, was placed on administrative leave after violating the league's domestic violence policy. It was reported that he had a physical altercation with his girlfriend (maybe wife. I researched and couldn't decide if they were married but they do have three kids together). German was forced to miss the remainder of the 2019 season, including the postseason. On January 2nd 2020, the MLB announced that German was given a 81 game suspension (half season) retroactive to September. Since he already missed the final 18 games of the Yankees regular season in 2019, German was only forced to miss 63 games this season. However, the MLB season is only 60 games long this year which obviously means that German would be ineligible to play the entire 2020 season. Today, German posted an Instagram photo of him in a Yankees uniform with a caption translated into English that read, "Everyone that marks their story on both sides, I think that I will mark mine at #yankeestadium if I decide not to return I will be proud of my effort in my 11 years of career. God bless everyone who supported me 🙏. He also posted on his Instagram story translated into English, "I left baseball thanks my people."
I honestly don't think this is a big blow for the Yannkees. I was never too big of a fan of him. His 18 wins last year may mislead you to think he was an elite pitcher but the truth is he only had 11 quality starts. I'm not suggesting quality starts is the best statistic, but not many pitchers even have as many wins as quality starts and he had 7 MORE wins than quality starts. Anyway, the Yankees rotation in 2021 looks like Gerritt Cole, Luis Severino, James Paxton (needs to be resigned), Masahiro Tanaka (need to be resigned), and J.A. Happ (needs to start 10 games this year to play initiate his third year option). Let's just say the Yankees lose Paxton, Tanaka, and Happ ( I am 99% confident at least two will be on the team next year and most likely all three will be) they still have Jordan Montgomery, Jonathon Loaisiga, and top prospects Clarke Schmidt and Deivi Garcia. Additionally they could always use Luis Cessa or Michael King as a fifth starter. I'm not opposed to a bullpen day either. Clearly the Yankees have a plentiful amount of pitching options. I am not worried about the loss of German, but I wish him the best in the rest of his life.
Comments