Domingo German

The Pirates will select the contract of right-hander Domingo German from Triple-A Indianapolis prior to tomorrow’s game with the Dodgers, according to reporter Mike Rodriguez (X link).  The move comes a day before German’s opt-out date in his most recent minor league contract with Pittsburgh.

It was just over a year ago that German began treatment for alcohol abuse, following a reported incident of an intoxicated German entering the Yankees’ clubhouse and arguing with teammates.  The Yankees placed German on the restricted list and outrighted him off the roster following the season, with German opting to become a free agent.  The trip to the open market led to his first minor league deal with the Pirates, and after his exercised an opt-out clause in mid-July, he re-signed with the Bucs a few days later.

German’s results in Indianapolis have been mixed, as he has a 5.29 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, and 10.3% walk rate in 68 Triple-A innings.  Some of the heavier damage did occur earlier in his Triple-A tenure, though it could be that the Pirates’ hand is being somewhat forced by the pending opt-out date.  It isn’t clear if German will start tomorrow’s game against Los Angeles, or if the Pirates might view him as something of a piggyback starter or long man behind an opener.

Mitch Keller, Paul Skenes, and Bailey Falter are lined up to start during the three-game series, so if German does get the start, he could push everyone back a day just to provide the regular rotation members with some extra rest.  Pittsburgh doesn’t play on August 15 and then embarks on a string of 13 games in as many days, so a de facto six-man rotation could help keep everyone fresh for that stretch.  Skenes’ workload has been a big subplot of his incredible rookie season and Jared Jones just started a rehab assignment and could be back from the IL in a couple of weeks, further shaking up the Pirates’ pitching plans as the club also tries to contend for a wild card berth.

German’s first appearance with the Pirates will mark his first Major League game with a team besides the Yankees, as the righty posted a 4.41 ERA over 522 1/3 innings with New York from 2017-23.  German missed the 2019 postseason and the entire 2020 season due to an 81-game suspension for a violation of the MLB/MLBPA domestic violence policy, and his checkered resume also includes a 10-game suspension in 2023 for using foreign substances on the ball, as well as the aforementioned stint on the restricted list.  In between those two absences last season, German entered the record books by throwing a perfect game against the A’s on June 28, 2023.

The Pirates have re-signed right-hander Domingo German to a minor league deal, according to MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf adds that German’s new pact with the club includes an opt-out on August 9. German has spent the entire 2024 season to this point pitching for the Pirates but opted out of his deal with Pittsburgh last week, though now it seems he’ll remain in the organization for at least a few more weeks.

German, 32 next month, made his big league debut with the Yankees back in 2017. While the righty appeared in just seven games as a multi-inning relief arm in his first MLB season, he went on to carve out a much more significant role for himself in the following years. 2018 saw German pitch in 21 games, including 14 starts, as a swing man for the Yankees, and by 2019 he had been promoted to a full-time starter. Off-the-field issues, including an 81-game suspension for violating the MLB-MLBPA joint domestic violence policy, saw him miss the 2019 postseason and the entire 2020 campaign, but upon his return to action in 2021 he spent three more seasons as a semi-regular fixture in New York’s rotation mix.

In all, German posted a 4.22 ERA (102 ERA+) with a 4.56 FIP in 422 1/3 innings of work for the Yankees between 2019 and 2023. German’s Yankees tenure including highs such as his outing against the A’s last June, where he threw the 24th perfect game in MLB history, but also lows such as his aforementioned suspension, a subsequent ten-game suspension for violating the league’s foreign substance policy on the mound, and a trip to the restricted list last September while he underwent treatment for alcohol abuse. Those numerous off-the-field issues help to explain why German, despite a track record as a fairly reliable back-end starter when healthy, settled for a minor league deal with the Pirates back in March.

Upon joining the Pirates, German was placed in the club’s Triple-A rotation, where he has struggled through ten starts. In 50 1/3 innings of work at the level this year, German has posted a lackluster 5.36 ERA with a similar 5.50 FIP. While his 20.6% strikeout rate is respectable enough, he’s walked a bloated 12% of batters faced at the level this year. That 8.6% K-BB% ratio is a far cry from the much more respectable 17.5% ratio he’s posted throughout his career in the major leagues, where he’s punched out 24.9% of batters faced while walking just 7.4%.

With Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, Marco Gonzales, Luis Ortiz, and Quinn Preister all seemingly ahead of German on the organizational depth chart among healthy starting options, it was hardly a surprise that German departed the club in hopes of finding a more pitching-hungry team interested in his services. Evidently, however, German was unable to find a deal he liked in free agency with another club, and as a result re-upped with Pittsburgh on a new deal that provides him an opt-out date after the Trade Deadline on July 30. It’s easy to imagine German exercising that opt-out opportunity as well, in hopes that a club that wasn’t able to address its rotation needs before the deadline at the end of the month shows interest in adding him to their mix as an innings-eating depth option. Until then, however, he figures to continue pitching in his current non-roster depth role with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate as he waits for his next big league opportunity.

Right-hander Domingo German was released by the Pirates this week, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’d been pitching with their Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. Robert Murray of FanSided reports that German exercised an opt-out clause in his contract, prompting the release. The Bucs remain open to bringing him back, per Murray — presumably on a new minor league pact.

German, 31, has started ten games in Indy and pitched to a 5.36 ERA with a below-average 20.6% strikeout rate and a bloated 12.6% walk rate. However, a good portion of the damage against German came in one brutal outing that saw him yield eight runs (seven earned) in just five frames. In six starts since that ugly outing, he’s logged a more palatable 3.60 ERA with slightly improved strikeout and walk rates of 22.7% and 10.9%.

German’s entire big league career has been spent in a Yankees uniform. He pitched parts of six seasons in the Bronx, logging 522 1/3 innings of 4.41 ERA ball while working primarily out of the starting rotation. He’s had a fair bit of big league success but also saw his time with the Yankees marred by off-the-field issues.

In 2020, German was suspended for 81 games under the MLB-MLBPA joint domestic violence policy. He did not pitch in the shortened 2020 season as a result. German also missed the final portion of the 2023 season after “voluntarily submitting to inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse” (as announced by the Yankees at the time) following an incident in which he was reportedly intoxicated in the clubhouse. Earlier in the 2023 season, he also served a 10-game suspension in 2023 after an umpire ruled that the pitcher had violated MLB’s foreign substance policy on the mound.

The Pirates are relatively deep in rotation options, even with Jared Jones, Bailey Falter and Johan Oviedo currently on the injured list. Pittsburgh’s rotation currently includes Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, Quinn Priester and Marco Gonzales. Righty Luis Ortiz and top prospect Braxton Ashcraft give the Bucs further options, with Ashcraft in particular in the midst of a breakout season between Double-A and Triple-A. Falter is on the shelf with tendinitis in his left triceps and isn’t presently expected to be in for a lengthy absence. Jones was shut down for two weeks in early July after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 lat strain. It’s not yet clear when he’s expected to resume throwing off a mound, let alone return to the big league staff. Oviedo underwent Tommy John surgery in the offseason and will be out until 2025.

8:46pm: Germán’s base salary for the upcoming season would actually be $1.25MM if he secures an MLB roster spot, Mackey reports (X link). There’s also a 2025 club option with a base value of $2.25MM. Germán could earn additional performance bonuses in both seasons.

7:57pm: The Pirates are in agreement with Domingo Germán, as first reported by Mike Rodriguez (on X). Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets that it’s a minor league pact. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman tweets that the righty will get an invite to major league camp.

Germán reached the market after being placed on outright waivers by the Yankees. That ended a six-year run in the Bronx that included a fair number of highlights but was also marked by off-field issues. Germán broke through as a big league starter in 2019 when he turned in a 4.03 ERA across 143 innings.

That September, MLB placed Germán on administrative leave after he reportedly assaulted his girlfriend at a charity event. MLB finished its investigation that offseason and suspended him for the first 81 games of the 2020 season. That year wound up being shortened by the pandemic, so MLB reinstated him after he missed the entire 60-game schedule.

Germán returned to the Yankees in 2021. He missed parts of the next two seasons battling shoulder issues, combining for a 4.17 ERA over 170 2/3 innings. He held a spot in the New York rotation for the early portion of last year. Germán’s start to the year was middling and he was suspended for 10 games in mid-May after failing a foreign substance inspection.

He carried a 5.10 ERA through his first 14 appearances into a late-June start in Oakland. Germán turned in a legendary performance at the Coliseum that night, throwing MLB’s 24th perfect game, the first since Félix Hernández’s outing in 2012. Germán followed that up with a 4.61 ERA over five starts in July.

On August 2, the Yankees announced they were placing him on the restricted list so he could report to an inpatient treatment facility for alcohol abuse. Lindsey Adler of the Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that an apparently intoxicated Germán had argued with teammates and coaches in the New York clubhouse and flipped a couch amidst those confrontations. New York placed him on the restricted list and moved on from him at the end of the season.

Pittsburgh will give the 31-year-old another opportunity to pitch his way back to the big leagues. The Pirates have an open rotation mix behind staff ace Mitch Keller. The Bucs added soft-tossing lefties Martín Pérez (via free agency) and Marco Gonzales (through trade) over the offseason. That duo will hold down rotation spots, with righty Luis Ortiz also likely to be in the mix. Bailey Falter, Josh Fleming and former top prospect Roansy Contreras are all competing for swing roles, but none of that group was especially successful in 2023. Prospects Quinn Priester and Jared Jones (the latter of whom is not on the 40-man roster) could battle for jobs as well.

Germán joins Eric Lauer, Chase Anderson, Wily Peralta and Michael Plassmeyer as non-roster players who have big league experience. There may even be room for two members of that group to snag season-opening jobs if the Bucs don’t go outside the organization for someone like Michael Lorenzen or Mike Clevinger at this point in the winter. Germán has more than five years of major league service and could not be optioned back to the minors without his consent if the Bucs call him up at any point.