Pirates silently make the Domingo Germán decision Yankees dragged their feet on

Apparently, only Brian Cashman was foolish enough to be enamored with Domingo Germán for an impactful length of time.

The right-hander's time with the Yankees was lowlighted by endless scandal, punishable bad behavior, and personal troubles. Following Germán's promotion in 2017, he made 14 low-impact starts in 2018, then rose to rotation prominence the following year (with an 18-4 record and 4.03 ERA for the "next man up" Yankees).

Unfortunately, one of those "next men" had to fill in for Germán in September and beyond after the right-hander committed a heinous act of domestic abuse in public at a team charity gala. Someone from MLB's commissioner's office was a reported witness, and the league saw fit to suspend Germán 81 games (encompassing a postseason run that, rightly, left the Yankees an arm short).

For a team with standards, that would've been the end of Germán's leash. For whatever reason, though, these Yankees were enamored with the idea of believing in a turnaround (even after the right-hander bizarrely announced his "retirement" during the pandemic, then denied ever doing such a thing). He returned to the team following his suspension, resurfacing in 2021, 2022 and 2023, posting solid results in the middle campaign and middling results in the others.

During his final summer in New York, Germán threw a remarkably uncomfortable perfect game in Oakland, leading to hemming, hawing, and begrudging acceptance from a large portion of the fan base that had no interest in celebrating his accomplishments.

Then, he was "scratched from a scheduled July 31 start with armpit discomfort," but warmed up later in the evening anyway. Was that a distorted truth, or a randomly generated cover-up? While we may never know the answer, we do know that his Yankees tenure ended three days later, when he arrived under the influence of alcohol, caused clubhouse chaos, was locked in the steam room, and ended up forcibly sent to rehab.

After all of that, he was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates this offseason, appearing to show a lack of remorse for the actions that ended his Yankees tenure, which would've been 27 bridges too far for any other organization. It should come as no surprise that, while his time in New York ended with a series of bangs, his tenure in Pittsburgh ended the way the Yankees should've handled things back in 2020: a subtle release, in accordance with his opt-out clause.

Per reports, the Pirates are weighing welcoming Germán back after he circles the league a bit longer. Instead of doing that, they should simply reread the first several paragraphs of this piece.

Pirates release Domingo Germán, which Yankees long refused to do

The Yankees' rationale, if you had to squint, was always that some needy team would pick up Germán if they balked at his actions, and they'd eventually live to regret offering up the poisonous free agent to the rest of baseball.

As the Pirates just proved, the grass tends to be geener on the other side of employing Germán. 10 starts. 10 starts in the minor-league weeds. 50 innings, and they got it. Let this be a retroactive lesson to Brian Cashman: once the worst has already happened, do your best to ignore the fear of an unearned "redemption arc." Otherwise, you might get left with a perfect game hurler stuck in a sauna and causing additional destruction.