Breaking news dropped this afternoon out of the Bronx and it is NOT the good kind. Domingo Germán has been placed on administrative leave after MLB opened a domestic violence investigation against the Yankees right-hander.
Now I’m going to be straight up with you guys. This really, really, genuinely sucks for multiple reasons. The first of which obviously being that NOBODY should ever even come close to THINKING about laying their hands on a woman. If this investigation turns up anything close to what might be considered domestic violence, then I don’t care if Domingo is 18-4 with a 4.03 ERA and 153 strikeouts, he needs to get gone IMMEDIATELY. Pack your shit and go, man. This is not the NFL. You absolutely cannot lay your hands on a woman and continue to offer your services to this league, let alone this organization.
Further reports quickly surfaced after the investigation opened, claiming that Germán allegedly slapped his girlfriend at some point Monday night.
If the tweet above proves to be true, then the incident most likely occurred at C.C. Sabathia’s charity event of which the ENTIRE TEAM was present. I mean this is really as bad as it gets, folks. If this turns out to indeed be fact, then Domingo will not be a New York Yankee a week from now. That’s a guarantee. On top of all of this, the man pitched a day later on Wednesday night, which makes the organization as a whole look pretty terrible. I’m aware that this news wasn’t available to the public until today, but according to Boone’s comments on the matter, the team had some type of idea of what exactly transpired Monday night.
If I were the Yankees and Brian Cashman, the second I heard a single whisper regarding the issue, I would’ve sat Domingo Germán right then and there until the investigation came to a conclusion. Allowing him to pitch on Wednesday just makes the organization look shady. Like they were hoping that the whole thing would blow over without any drama. If this was the case, which I’m not saying it was, then the team was dead wrong. What was originally a few whispers has quickly turned into an extremely toxic situation that is SO much bigger than baseball. The Yankees should have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior and I believe they do, I just think they could’ve handled the emergence of this news a bit more swiftly. The fact that Boone and the Yanks are making plans to move forward without Germán tells me that these allegations are all but confirmed to be true, which effectively means that we have seen the last of Domingo in pinstripes. At least that’s what it absolutely should mean.
What does this mean for Yankees World Series hopes? Not much in my honest opinion. The Yanks were just fine when Germán landed on the I.L. for an extended period of time mid-season, and they’ve been just fine all season with just about their entire team on life support. Next man up. That’s been the mantra for this team all season long and it will continue to carry them to the promised land. Of this I am sure.
