We do not know exactly what Jimmy Cordero did. The Yankees, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement, do not know exactly what Jimmy Cordero did. Manager Aaron Boone said he has a “vague” idea, and was only informed by Cordero a few days ago that he was even being investigated by MLB.
The charge: domestic violence.
The verdict: Cordero will miss at least the final 76 games of the Yankees’ regular season, plus however many games they might play in the postseason. So because of this, we do know two things:
- The evidence was enough to suspend him.
- Even without details, we can assume that evidence is pretty damning.
It is a reminder — what has for the moment become a weekly reminder — that there isn’t a uniform that can fully cloak the dark side of a professional athlete when he chooses to allow violence to invade his home life.
Last Wednesday, Domingo German became the 24th man in MLB history to throw a perfect game. But as will be the case whenever he does something positive the rest of his career — up to and including his obituary — that news item will be counterbalanced by the fact he received an 81-game suspension from MLB that covered all of 2020 and a portion of 2021 for a domestic violence incident that took place in 2019. That is not only proper, it’s essential.
German, at least outwardly, appears to have spent the ensuing years trying to reassemble his life. He is now married to the woman who was at the center of his incident. He has had his ups and downs as a pitcher, as most pitchers do, but he will always have last Wednesday night in Oakland. Perfect and imperfect: both are part of his permanent record from now on.
Boone expressed hope that Cordero can have a similar redemption story. Again, because of the CBA, ballclubs are kept in the dark on both sides: MLB doesn’t share details of its investigation, only the knowledge that the league is investigating; the players only tell what they want to. And it sounds as if Cordero has said very little, as is his prerogative.
“You get that news, it’s sad — our heart goes out to everyone involved,” Boone said Wednesday, a few hours before the Yankees played the third game of a four-game series with the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
“My biggest feeling is hoping and praying something good comes out of it — maturity, growth, healing. How [it affects] our bullpen — that’s not even a secondary concern. This is real life and a more serious situation.”
Cordero won’t be paid by the Yankees for the duration of his suspension, and he’s off the 40-man roster. They can’t release him until after the ban ends, though it is hard to believe they will be inclined to bring him back next year unless there is fundamental evidence that he has been fully rehabilitated. And even then …
Let’s be very honest: as many strides as sports leagues have made in confronting the scourge of domestic violence, there is still very much a different set of standards that apply to the offenders, depending on their status.
Aroldis Chapman was always going to find a willing suitor because he threw the ball 101 on the black. Jose Reyes still had enough skills that he was moderately accepted in his old home, Citi Field, when the Mets acquired him from the Rockies for the last 2 ¹/₂ seasons of his career. The Astros imported Roberto Osuna from Toronto in 2018 and he saved 50 games for them across the next season and change.
German? The details of his alleged incident were appalling — unlike the others, some of it occurred in a public place, so there were actual witnesses to it — but he was also only 27 years old and had just finished a breakout season in which he had gone 18-4.
Cordero had been putting together a nice comeback story for himself this season, three seasons after he’d last thrown a big league pitch, after overcoming Tommy John surgery and spending 2022 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He’d become a reliable option in a Yankees bullpen that’s among the best in baseball.
But he is also 31. Bullpen parts are eminently replaceable. And his is a stain that will be hard to remove.
“Hopefully this leads to genuine healing,” Boone said.
You would like to think it might lead to another athlete thinking twice before allowing violence to visit home. The consequences are very real. As well they need to be. No matter how sordid or otherwise the details may be.