Finally an exciting prospect not named Gleyber Torres! The New York Yankees’ latest big name has the potential to break into the big leagues in a big way.
Domingo German has been an exciting prospect on the New York Yankees‘ radar since being acquired from the Miami Marlins in the trade that sent Martin Prado and David Phelps to Miami for Nathan Eovaldi, Garrett Jones and German.
German is now three years out from Tommy John surgery—he successfully returned in 2016 and was able to regain his form and dominate in the lower minors and, as a result, received an invitation to the big league camp in 2017.
While he started the 2017 season with Double-A Trenton, he made only six starts before being promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and from there he was called to the big leagues four times over the 2017 season.
During his time in the minors in 2017, he maintained an impressive 2.88 ERA with a 9.8 strikeout rate and 2.8 walk rate over 109.1 innings between Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton.
German debuted with the Yankees on June 11, 2017 and appeared in seven games, mostly in mop-up duty during blowouts. In that time, he still put up some solid numbers. He threw 14.1 innings and posted a 3.14 ERA while only giving up 11 hits with 18 strikeouts and recording a 1.40 WHIP.
In camp in 2018, German has worked both as a starter and a reliever. In four games, he’s pitched to a combined 0.84 ERA with seven hits, one home run, one earned run, four walks and 13 strikeouts.
His March 7 start against the Mets was his best of the spring, as Randy Miller of NJ.com wrote,
Starting against the Mets, German had a lot of impressive moments allowing two unearned runs over 2 2/3 innings…
Miller makes the case that German has held his own against big league hitters and has an arsenal of pitches to make a successful starter.
Recently German told Miller that:
My fastball command is definitely better this year compared to last year,” German said. “My secondary pitches are better. My concentration in the game, that’s something that I’ve worked hard on and (pitching coach) Larry (Rothschild) has told me that I looked better concentrating. I’m also more aggressive at times.
According to BrooksBaseball.com, German throws: a four-seam fastball (97 mph), curve (82 mph), change (89 mph) and a sinker (97 mph).
Brooks Baseball describes German’s fastball as having well-above-average velocity and his sinker as “thrown at a speed that’s borderline unfair.” Rob Terranova of PinstripedProspects.com describes his delivery as “smooth and easy,” and says that his best secondary pitch is his changeup, which has radically improved over the course of the last couple of seasons.
German will get another opportunity today in a relief role (Tanaka will be starting) as he is among the Yankee players traveling to Lakeland to take on the Tigers. With his impressive arsenal of pitches, German is primed to succeed as an impact player either in the Yankee rotation, if needed, or in the bullpen.
