Aaron Boone on how Domingo German’s teammates are receiving him after domestic violence suspension: ‘My antenna’s up’

TAMPA — Aaron Boone is known for managing the clubhouse well. The former big leaguer knows when a player needs some space or needs some love. He also has radar for developing issues. Thursday, however, he didn’t need any special sense when Zack Britton laid out his feelings about Domingo German’s return from a domestic violence abuse suspension.

“I guess, put a little strength in my antenna as far as something that I’m looking at more closely. Now, I’m not ready to say that Domingo needs to go and address the team,” Boone said Friday afternoon. “I don’t think that at this point is something that I want to make somebody do. I think that that needs to be something that comes from within and is authentic. But it is something that I’m looking at trying to pay attention to as best I can.

“Obviously we’re dealing with a serious issue. And we’re dealing with a person’s life and livelihood and we want to be a part of helping that situation and paying attention to what our group and our players are feeling is important,” Boone continued. “So it’s certainly something that I’m paying close attention to, we are playing paying close attention to, but I am not ready to have him address the team coming as a directive for me.”

Thursday, the first official workout of pitchers and catchers, Britton said he didn’t necessarily want to hear from German, who was suspended 81 games after an incident with the mother of his two children in September of 2019.

“I don’t think he owes anything to me. I think it’s off the field stuff that he needs to take care of. Sometimes you don’t get to control who your teammates are,” the reliever said. “That’s the situation. I don’t agree with what he did. I don’t think it has any place in the game or off the field at all.”

Boone said he had no issue with what Britton, a leader in the clubhouse, said.

“I think Brit answered a direct question, honestly,” Boone said. “I’m sure there’s 1000 shades of gray in there about how guys feel certainly when serious situations come up away from the field. And I’m sure that exists throughout our clubhouse.

“So like I said it’s something that, my antenna’s up on and we’ll continue to, to try and monitor it and watch it and handle it the best way possible.”

German was on the field Friday after a rain storm long tossing with newly acquired catcher Robinson Chirinos. He was also scheduled to throw off the mound in the Yankees’ new indoor, high-tech facility called the “gas station.”

“First and foremost today, he looked great in his bullpen. He’s physically in really good condition and shape,” Boone said. “We’re all human and the reality is it’s been a year and a half now where, obviously, he’s been through a lot in his life and has suffered from a career standpoint. So, yeah, of course I’m going to be sensitive to how he’s responding and reacting, to things that aren’t just as simple as the baseball-related stuff and be concerned about how it is impacting him.”

An 18-game winner in 2019, German started five games playing in the Dominican winter league. The best the Yankees could hope from that is that the right-hander was rusty. He pitched to a 7.16 ERA, with 13 earned runs on 17 hits. He struck out eight and walked nine.

Matt Blake, however, was optimistic about German on the mound. The second-year pitching coach said he came into spring training ahead of where they expected him to be.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Domingo coming into camp... spent a little bit of time trying to get to know what he was about this offseason when he was playing winter ball,” Blake said. “But just the nature of the winter ball environment and the information we get, obviously not full to the picture that we get when he’s in person and in our environment,” he added. “So I’ve been really happy with the quality of work especially today. His bullpen was pretty crisp, so probably ahead of what I would have anticipated. We still have a long way to go, but off to a pretty good start for the first couple days.”

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