The Yankees are ready to give Domingo German a chance to “resurrect” his career.
Now we’ll see if he’ll take it.
The right-hander’s road back from his suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence protocols is over and manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday he — along with general manager Brian Cashman and bench coach Carlos Mendoza — talked with German, “welcoming him back” to the team.
But Wednesday night, German’s odd offseason continued, as a cryptic message on his Instagram account said in Spanish “everything is over.”
German then deleted all his previous posts and wrote again in Spanish “I’m ready” along with Boone’s quote from earlier in the day about German rebounding this season.
The manager also added, though, that German would not be guaranteed anything this spring.
Domingo German is attempting a comeback. Paul J. Bereswill“We know he’s paid a significant price from a career standpoint, really having missed a full season-plus now,’’ Boone said in a Zoom call on the day pitchers and catchers reported. “Hopefully, that’s behind us. We feel like he’s in a good place coming in and now it’s on him to go out and kind of resurrect his career and compete for a spot on this team. … It’s been a very long year coming back.”
But German needs to show he can still be effective on the mound — and stay out of trouble off the field. He was suspended for 81 games in January 2020 for violating the protocol and missed all of last season, then announced he was leaving baseball — although he later took that back and pitched winter ball in the Dominican Republic.
The Yankees need as many quality arms as they can get to back up Gerrit Cole. If German can regain the form he had in 2019, when he won 18 games and threw 143 innings before his suspension, it would provide a boost.
“Certainly nothing has been promised,” Boone said of German’s role with the team. “We’re going to be there and try and be supportive as we can moving forward to not only hopefully get the most out of himself on the mound and between the lines, but also becoming the best he can be off the field as well.”
