Yankees’ Zack Britton on Domingo German return: ‘you don’t control who your teammates are’

Yankees right-hander Domingo German was with his teammates in spring training Thursday as pitchers and receivers showed up for their first official day of training. The German is returning to the squad after being suspended for domestic violence and missing the entire shortened 2020 season.

Yankees reliever Zack Britton was asked about the German’s return, and said it was a “difficult question”.

“I don’t think he owes me anything. I think these are things off the field that he needs to deal with,” Britton said in an interview with Zoom (via nj.com), when asked about the return of the Germans. “Sometimes you just can’t control who your teammates are, and that’s the situation. I don’t agree with what he did. I don’t think that has a place in the game or off the field. “

“My job is to go out there, present and do my job,” Britton added. “So that’s what concerns me here. [German] owes me nothing. I think it’s something he will have to deal with on his own and make better choices in the future. “

The German received an 81-game suspension from Major League Baseball under the joint policy on domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse for an incident in September 2019. He has three more games left on this suspension. Under his agreement with MLB at the time of the suspension, German agreed not to appeal the suspension. He also had to undergo assessment and treatment, in accordance with existing league policy.

In 2019, the German was 18-4 with a 4.03 ERA (111 ERA +), 1.15 WHIP and 153 strikeouts in 143 innings pitched.

Once Luis Severino is completely out of Tommy John’s surgery (which he underwent last February), the Yankees’ rotation might look something like:

There is also the possibility that Deivi Garcia takes turns picking up his feet while Jhoulys Chacin and Asher Wojciechowski are not invited to spring training, not to mention the presence of youngsters like Clarke Schmidt and Luis Medina in the organization. .

Basically the German has a front office chance here to make do and stay in the rotation. If he’s wrong, there’s really no point in keeping him on the squad, especially if there is already at least one well-respected teammate who doesn’t seem too keen on sharing a clubhouse with him.