The New York Yankees have gotten through five spring training games without any significant negatives. In fact, several of the players had begun the off-season with a spark, including starting pitcher Domingo German, who is coming off an 81 game suspension.
German is competing for the fifth spot in the starting rotation, with Deivi Garcia, Michael King, and even Clarke Schmidt in the mix. He will have to stifle off the Yankee youth, and despite not having pitched in the MLB in over a year, he had a stellar performance on Friday against Detroit.
“It was exciting to be back on the field, back with my teammates,’’ German said after his dominant outing.
The last time German featured in the MLB was in 2019, when he pitched 143 innings and posted a 4.03 ERA and 4.72 FIP. He logged a career-high 2.0 WAR and struck out 153 batters over 27 games.
The Yankees are optimistic that he would quickly become an integral part of the rotation, but the suspension set him back significantly. Now, he’s 28 years old and fighting for an opportunity on the team once again, but after putting together two innings of fantastic baseball, management is likely a bit more optimistic than they were before. He struck out four batters in his small sample size, starting off his second chance with a bang.
“I thought overall it was a really good outing for him,’’ said Carlos Mendoza.
“I saw confidence from him and that’s what I wanted,’’ said Sanchez. “Have fun and execute with confidence.’’
It is clear that the Yankees players are behind him, as long as he maintains his personal life. Starting first baseman Luke Voit, stated a few days ago that German was skating on thin ice, but he had the support of his teammates. What he did was awful and disgusting, but the Yankees feel as though he deserves a second chance, and hopefully, he doesn’t let it pass him by.