Yankees pitcher Domingo German suspended 81 games

After being put on administrative leave in September, New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German has now been suspended 81 games for a violation of MLB’s domestic violence policy.

New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German was placed on administrative leave in mid-September due to an alleged domestic violence incident. Now, as first reported by Hannah Keyser of Yahoo!, he has been suspended 81 games for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy.

After accounting for the games he missed at the end of last season, nine in the regular season and then nine in the postseason, German will miss the first 63 games of the 2020 season. The suspension will not be appealed by German.

German allegedly slapped his girlfriend at CC Sabathia’s charity gala on Sept. 16, with conflicting reports at the time over where the incident took place and who witnessed it. More specifically, it was unclear if a member of the commissioner’s office saw the incident take place.

No criminal charges were filed, and the 81-game ban for German is now the longest levied under MLB’s domestic violence policy without formal legal charges. Addison Russell’s 40-game suspension in 2018 had been the longest with no criminal charges filed against the player.

German pitched a career-high 143 innings for the Yankees last season, spanning 27 appearances (24 starts), with an 18-4 record, a 4.03 ERA, a 9.6 K/9 and a 2.5 BB/9. He will likely cede the portion of his $577.500 2019 salary he received during his administrative leave, and he’ll obviously lose a significant chunk of whatever he makes as a pre-arbitration eligible player next season (38.9 percent of it, to be precise).

In terms of the on-field impact of German’s absence from the starting rotation, the Yankees look well-equipped to deal with it.

Overall, German is the 12th player suspended under MLB’s domestic violence policy and his ban is the fourth-longest.