The New York Yankees have received some long-awaited news regarding one of their starting pitchers. In an offseason that began with a slew of injuries and evolved into one of the most successful offseasons with the signing of Gerrit Cole, it appears more bad news awaits. Starting pitcher Domingo German who has been given an eighty-one game suspension courtesy of Major League Baseball will not be available to pitch in Spring Training but will be eligible for the 2020 postseason. German spent the last eighteen games (counting postseason) of the Yankees 2019 season on the shelf amid an investigation from league officials regarding a domestic violence incident.
Source confirms Yankees RHP Domingo German’s suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy will be 81 games. German will sit out the first 63 games of the 2020 season, having sat out the final 18 games (9 regular season/9 playoffs) of 2019. @HannahRKeyser was on it 1st.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) January 2, 2020
The league stepped in, and German was placed on the administrative leave at the end of the 2019 season, causing quite the blow to the Yankees starting rotation. German sat out eighteen games as mentioned above, so he will only miss sixty-three games during the 2020 regular season. That being said, German can return to the mound in a Yankees uniform on June 5th, 2020, when the Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays. That will mark the completion of his eighty-one game suspension. On top of the suspension, German will be offering a donation to Sanctuary for Families, which is a New York-based nonprofit organization that helps those affected by domestic violence. This suspension is the largest handed out by Major League Baseball for a player who was not formally charged.
The 2019 season was treating German to a Cy Young award performance before the shutdown. German started twenty-seven games for the Yankees in 2019, producing an 18-4 record with a 4.03 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, and 153 strikeouts over 143 innings pitched. The Yankees did, however, bolster down their rotation with Gerrit Cole, which means that the lack of German’s presence in the rotation should not be an issue, and his return will only strengthen the rotation in June.
