The Yankees scratched Domingo German from his scheduled start on Monday night, but it was not related to a trade on the eve of the deadline.
And the injury concern was not enough to keep him out of the game entirely, either.
German experienced discomfort in his right armpit on Sunday, manager Aaron Boone revealed three hours before Monday’s first pitch, leading the Yankees to call up Jhony Brito to start against the Rays.
But then in the bottom of the fourth inning, German surprisingly appeared in the Yankees’ bullpen, warming up to enter the game in the top of the fifth to relieve Brito.
That was an indication that German’s pregame meeting with team doctor Chris Ahmad went well enough, confirming the Yankees’ hope that the armpit issue would not lead to a stint on the injured list.
Boone had said before the game that if German checked out OK in his meeting with Ahmad, he could slot back into the rotation later this week, but those plans were apparently sped up.
While German was feeling better by Monday, the Yankees did not want to start him and take the chance of him needing to exit early, especially a day after their bullpen had to cover 4 ²/₃ innings in relief of an ineffective Luis Severino.
“We just didn’t feel like we could risk sending him out there and then if we had to pull the plug in the first inning or something, [it would] put us in a tough situation,” Boone said.
To make room for Brito on the roster, the Yankees optioned reliever Ron Marinaccio to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
German last pitched on Tuesday against the Mets, when he gave up six runs in six innings, raising his ERA to 4.77.
He has posted a 7.12 ERA over his last seven starts — a stretch that included his perfect game against the Athletics on June 28 — but Boone said German did not start feeling the armpit discomfort until Sunday.
“Just in his normal catch play, he couldn’t go through his catch play,” Boone said. “But then when they went through all his testing and strength tests, by the end of the night, he was feeling good.”