Domingo German publicly apologizes for domestic violence incident

TAMPA — Domingo German publicly apologized Wednesday for his actions on the night of Sept. 16, 2019 and, as he works to ingratiate himself back into the Yankees’ family, acknowledged he must “show that I definitely can become a better person and let my actions speak for myself.”

The right-hander, who served an 81-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic-violence protocol — the sentence began in September 2019 and carried through the entirety of last season, thanks to the pandemic delay — said at the Yankees’ player-development complex, through an interpreter, “I have made mistakes of which I’m not proud of, and for that I want to apologize.”

German said that he remains with his girlfriend, Mara Vega, whom he harmed on the night in question. His much-discussed Instagram post last week, which he quickly deleted, was a tribute to Vega, he said, the “Everything is over” referring to the conclusion of his banishment. In general, German said, “I must improve on” his social-media usage.

Last week, Yankees reliever Zack Britton, asked about German, said, “Sometimes you don’t get to control who your teammates are and that’s the situation.” Of those comments, German said, “He has a right to do that, to comment. I understood where he was coming from. I had the opportunity to talk with him. He gave me really good advice on how I can improve and at the same time, the comments made were not to be taken personally. They were at the professional level. From that conversation, he gave me really good advice which I’m thankful for.”

The 28-year-old said that he had not spoken directly with Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, who offered strong words last fall about the high bar German would need to clear to return to the organization’s good graces.

On Wednesday, German spoke in front of his teammates twice, addressing the pitchers and catchers in the morning at the player-development complex and then the infielders and outfielders at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

“Once you get in front of the team and address how you’re feeling…that’s when the dynamic changes from silence. It’s definitely good that he did that,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “We’re all moving forward. We all have difficult things that go on, some a lot worse than others, but it’s our job to support each other in the right way when given an opportunity.”