The Pirates have re-signed right-hander Domingo German to a minor league contract, according to MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf adds that German’s new agreement with the club has an opt-out clause on August 9. German has spent the whole 2024 season pitching for the Pirates, but opted out of his contract with Pittsburgh last week, but it appears he will continue with the organization for at least a few more weeks.
German, who will turn 32 next month, made his major league debut with the Yankees in 2017. While the righty played in only seven games as a multi-inning relief pitcher in his first MLB season, he went on to carve out a much larger role for himself in subsequent years. In 2018, German appeared in 21 games, including 14 starts, as a swingman for the Yankees, and by 2019, he had been upgraded to full-time starter. Off-the-field difficulties, including an 81-game ban for breaching the MLB-MLBPA joint domestic violence policy, forced him to miss the 2019 postseason and the entire 2020 season, but he returned to action in 2021 and spent three more seasons as a semi-regular in New York’s rotation mix.
German had a 4.22 ERA (102 ERA+) and a 4.56 FIP in 422 1/3 innings for the Yankees from 2019 to 2023. German’s tenure with the Yankees included highs like his outing against the A’s last June, when he threw the 24th perfect game in MLB history, as well as lows like 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 undergoing alcohol abuse treatment. These multiple off-the-field concerns help to explain why German, despite a track record as a very consistent back-end starter when healthy, agreed to a minor league contract with the Pirates in March.
When German joined the Pirates, he was sent to the Triple-A rotation, where he struggled in ten starts. In 50 1/3 innings of work at the level this season, German has a 5.36 ERA and a 5.50 FIP. While his strikeout percentage of 20.6% is respectable, he has walked 12% of hitters faced at the level this season. That 8.6% K-BB% ratio is a far cry from the much more respectable 17.5% ratio he’s maintained throughout his major league career, in which he has struck out 24.9% of batters while walking only 7.4%.
With Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, Marco Gonzales, Luis Ortiz, and Quinn Preister all appearing to be ahead of German on the organizational depth chart in terms of healthy starting options, it’s no surprise that German left the club in search of a more pitching-hungry team. However, German was unable to find a deal he liked in free agency with another team, and as a result, he re-signed with Pittsburgh on a new contract that includes an opt-out date after the Trade Deadline on July 30. It’s easy to envision German taking use of that opt-out option as well, hoping that a club that was unable to address its rotation needs before the deadline at the end of the month may be interested in adding him to their mix as an innings-eating backup option. Until then, he expects to continue pitching in his current non-roster depth role with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate while waiting for his next major league opportunity.
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