Opinion
Perrotto: Domingo German Proves to Be Bad Karma for Pirates
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates are always taking gambles to one degree or another when they sign free agents.
General manager Ben Cherington has no chance of landing premium free agents. For one thing, owner Bob Nutting doesn’t provide that kind of budget. Secondly, premier players don’t yearn to play for a franchise that hasn’t won a postseason series since beating the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 World Series.
Even medium-priced free agents usually don’t fit the Pirates’ budget. So, Cherington is left to sign players coming off bad seasons or having flaws.
Domingo German is the last major-leaguer to pitch a perfect game. However, the right-hander is an imperfect person. Yet the Pirates decided to take a shot on German during spring training and signed the right-hander to a minor-league contract.
It didn’t work out as the Pirates designated the 32-year-old for assignment Thursday night before a 9-4 victory over the Washington Nationals at PNC Park.
German’s stint with the Pirates was, for the most part, awful. He went 0-1 with a 7.84 ERA and 1.83 WHIP in seven games, including two starts.
German had moments where he looked like he could be a top-notch pitcher, like when he worked six shutout innings against the Texas Rangers on Aug. 21. But in his next outing, five days later against the Chicago Cubs, he was rocked for eight runs in 2.2 innings of relief.
The last straw came on Wednesday night in Chicago when German gave up seven runs in three innings of a 12-0 loss to the Cubs in a game in which the Pirates were no-hit.
Signing German never seemed like a good idea from the start. He had finished last season on the restricted list with the New York Yankees after going on a clubhouse tirade where he flipped a couch and charged at manager Aaron Boone.
German agreed to go to an alcohol treatment facility in Florida for rehabilitation. However, he was drinking again by the time he signed with the Pirates, which he acknowledged to NJ Advance Media’s Randy Miller in March.
Amazingly, German’s admission to drinking didn’t raise a red flag with the Pirates. They assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis anyway and eventually promoted him to the major leagues last month.
Last year did not represent German’s first brush with trouble, either.
German was suspended for the entire pandemic-shortened 2020 season for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence party after allegedly assaulting his wife. He was suspended 10 games by MLB last season for using a banned substance on the mound.
Yet German also won 18 games in 2019 and threw a perfect game last season against the Oakland Athletics on June 28, just the 24th in major-league history. So, the allure of signing German on the cheap was understandable.
Everybody deserves a second chance, but German has had more than his fair share of his second chances. At some point, everyone eventually runs out of opportunities to redeem themselves.
Speaking of chances, that’s the way the Pirates operate in free agency. They hope to hit on a Martin Perez here or a Michael A. Taylor there.
It’s a tough way to live.
So, the Pirates took an ill-advised chance on German, and it failed. It seems like karma might have been at work.
