Yankees captain Aaron Judge was left “upset” after learning the news of Jimmy Cordero’s suspension for violating the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.
Cordero, 31, was placed on the restricted list Wednesday and will miss the rest of the 2023 season, amounting to a 76-game ban, and playoffs if the Yankees make it.
While few details have emerged about the incident that led to Cordero’s suspension, Judge spoke to reporters Wednesday about the situation.
Though not every Yankee was personally informed about the ban, Cordero did keep Judge, the Yankees’ captain, in the loop about the suspension Wednesday.
The 31-year-old Judge, who’s on the injured list with a toe injury, did not go into any specifics about the incident but said he’s keeping Cordero’s family in his thoughts.
“I talked with Jimmy about it. There’s still a lot of unknowns. We really don’t know what happened and what the incident is,” Judge said. “We just found out that he’s suspended for the rest of the year with domestic violence. It’s tough. Like I said, I have his family on my mind. It’s a terrible incident but we can move forward with it and hopefully he learns.
“There’s so many resources out there that he can use. Hopefully he started reaching out and doing that.
“Hopefully he learns from this and becomes a better person on the other side.”
“I was pretty upset,” Judge added. “I know a lot of the guys on the team are upset. “This is in the league’s hands, and the league handed down the suspension.”
Cordero is the third member of the Yankees to be suspended under the league’s domestic abuse policy — that took effect in 2015 — after Domingo German was handed an 81-game suspension in 2020 and Aroldis Chapman was given a 30-game ban for a 2016 incident.
Manager Aaron Boone addressed the incident involving Cordero on Wednesday and said he was not even thinking of the baseball side of losing a relief pitcher, keeping the focus on the severity of the incident itself.
“My biggest thing right now is feeling for the situation and hoping and praying that something good comes out of it and there’s maturity, growth and healing in whatever is going on,” Boone said. “As far as bullpen, I wouldn’t even say that’s secondary. Baseball, we’ll deal with that.
“This is real life and a much more serious situation that’s going on.”
Earlier Wednesday, after MLB announced the suspension, the Yankees released a statement and stood by the league’s decision.
“The Yankees are fully supportive of Major League Baseball’s investigative process and the disciplinary action applied to Jimmy Cordero. There is no justification for domestic violence, and we stand with the objectives, standards and enforcement of MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.”
Cordero has been in the Yankees organization since December 2021, when he signed as a free agent.
He pitched last year with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and had a 3.86 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 36 2/3 innings this year with the big club before the suspension.