Yankee starting pitcher Domingo German was suspended by the umpires prior to the fourth inning:
Start Time: 7:07 p.m. Local
Attendance: 35,112
Venue: Rogers Centre
Game Duration: 3:02
Night Game, on turf
Yankees 6, Blue Jays 3
German had retired all nine batters faced on 37 pitches. He might have pitched 2 or 3 more innings.
He was suspended because he had stuff on his pitching hand that is against the rules. Punishing him makes sense. Punishing the team makes sense. But endangering the remaining pitchers is fundamentally unfair as it could severely hurt their careers.
During German's ten game suspension, the Yankee roster must remain short. German cannot be replaced. The other Yankee pitchers must make up for his absence. Maybe the Yankees could replace a non pitcher with a minor league pitcher but what the heck is that?
We can digress into complaining about how current pitchers are coddled, throw too many odd pitches too fast, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn't matter during these next ten games.
As is true with the "bullpen games" in recent years, teams might simply be better off forfeiting. Inform the league the day before that they will not show up but will take a loss in the standings.
MLB would probably throw the book at the team because it would interfere with revenue flow on multiple levels. But it makes sense and that is the point. MLB is putting individual pitchers in harm's way.
What if multiple pitchers on a team had been suspended concurrently? It could quickly devolve into chaos. Neither MLB nor the players association thought this through. The policy should be changed immediately.
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