New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins Offer Differing Views Of Domingo German’s Sticky Situation

Sticky stuff first became a focus in baseball in June 2021 when then Minnesota Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson seemed to accuse Gerrit Cole of using substances such as Spider Tack and perhaps other things to create a dominant spin rate.

Since then Donaldson and Cole seemingly cleared the air upon becoming teammates and other than the periodic checks by umpires it hardly was a focal point of games, especially with a dedicated effort to move things along with a pitch clock.

Then it came into focus during the two hours, 27 minutes it took for the Yankees to complete another win over the Twins when Domingo German’s pitches started moving noticeably better and leading to among the best of his xx career starts.

The Twins could have had plenty of reasons to be frustrated because of what was unfolding against German. German walked five Monday without a strikeout but hardly looked like a fifth starter Saturday and for most of the day was pitching like David Wells on May 17, 1998 against Minnesota.

As in perfect, German was that through the first 16 hitters, a span when he was checked twice by crew chief James Hoye, who appeared to be giving the message of “wash your hands” in reference to remnants of rosin on German’s hands.

“If there’s tackiness, which usually comes from rosin, we would not eject,” Hoye said to a pool reporter. “In that situation there, it was like, this is not an ejectable offense because we didn’t feel it rose to the foreign substance standard of affecting the flight, affecting his pitching. That’s why we didn’t eject.”

And that was pretty much German’s explanation for what unfolded.

“There was a moment there where I felt that maybe things were going to get out of hand, but I was able to explain it and tell them that I have a rosin bag that’s in the area of the dugout where I sit all the time,” he told reporters.

The rosin is allowed as a way for pitchers to dry their hands and get a better grip on the ball. And when umpires ruled German was pitching legally albeit it a little forgetful about completely washing his hands, that set off the Twins, notably manager Rocco Baldelli.

“That’s the only question, that’s the only point that I’m raising,” Baldelli told reporters. “It’s just clear, simply the fact that there was a point raised, their pitcher was asked to do something pertaining to a rule that’s been a focal point of a lot of discussion, and he failed to do what he was asked to do: rid himself of something that he was carrying on his hand.

Baldelli was calmer shortly after he finished watching the five innings after being asked to leave following a somewhat animated scene with Hoye that delayed things for nearly six minutes. He was tossed after hearing the explanation after umpires were surrounded by a Yankee contingent that included manager Aaron Boone and coaches.

“All I know is the pitcher didn’t comply with what he was asked to do,” Baldelli told reporters. “That upset me, and I think everyone in our dugout. They (umpires) thought there was an issue an then they thought there was an issue again. And then he kept pitching.”

It was a topic Baldelli pointed out that nobody wanted to be talking about and for the most part the thorny conversation about stickiness with pitches has been pushed aside. Since the enforcement began Seattle’s Hector Santiago and Arizona’s Caleb Smith are the answers to the trivia question of who the only pitchers are to get suspended for sticky violations.

Santiago drew a 10-game ban with Seattle on June 29, 2021 when he was caught using it in a game against the White Sox. Smith was banned for 10 games in Sept. 2021 after being caught with a pair of sticky spots in his glove during a game against the Phillies a few weeks earlier.

“No one wants to be talking about this,” Baldelli said. “I hate talking about this. The players don’t want to — this is not part of the game that anyone is excited about dealing with, probably especially the umpires, and rightly so.”

And the players did not want to talk about what they felt was a noticeable increase in how German moved.

We see the board,” Byron Buxton told reporters while refencing the center field scoreboard that shows various pitcher analytics along with the standard pitch count, velocity and pitch type. “It ain’t like you can hide it. … We see all that. We see RPMs. We see all that.

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