The New York Yankees have prioritized perception for nearly 50 years. In 1976, former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner instituted a no-facial hair policy. Since that point, any player who joins the Yankees, regardless of individual status, is forced to shave and maintain hair above their collar.
This is a policy that has been criticized. Former Yankee Cameron Maybin said this offseason that removing the rule would allow the Yankees access to more players. Andrew McCutchen, who played for the Yankees in 2018, has spoken out against the rule.
In reality, the New York Yankees have cultivated an image as a serious MLB organization, where no player is above the name on the front of the jersey or the rules of the organization. With the ability to sign almost any free agent, and maintain the service of any player on the roster they wish to keep, the Yankees can afford these rules.
No facial hair is an extreme rule that only a team like the Yankees could have the luxury of implementing. Since the rule was implemented, the Yankees have won seven World Series titles, while appearing in four more fall classics. The Yankees haven’t had a losing season since 1992, and have only five seasons under .500 since that rule was implemented. While Maybin might be correct in his belief that the Yankees are turning some players away with their policy, the reality is that a lot of players will want to go to the Yankees for the chance to win, even if it means shaving and cutting their hair.
The Yankees have the luxury of choosing players who want to win, rather than begging players to come to their organization to make them winners. This luxury not only allows them to set policies on individual hair, but it also allows them to refuse production from any player who doesn’t act professional. The Pittsburgh Pirates have no such luxuries.
The Saga of Domingo German
In 2019, Yankees pitcher Domingo German was suspended for 81 games for violating the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Child Abuse Policy, following an incident where he was physically violent with his partner while intoxicated.
German was in the middle of an 18-4 season on the mound with the Yankees, and was attending a charity event of teammate C.C. Sabtahia. During the event, German was intoxicated and allegedly struck his girlfriend, Mara Vega. Since the incident, German has worked to get into a better place in his life, and today he still remains with Vega, who is the mother of his children.
That said, last August, German was suspended by the Yankees for the remainder of the season, following an incident where he was under the influence of alcohol and couldn’t control his emotions. He reportedly flipped over a couch, smashed a television in the clubhouse, and had a confrontation with manager Aaron Boone. Following the incident, German entered inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse.
The Yankees non-tendered him following the season, and he refused an outright assignment to the minors. The Pirates signed German as a free agent on a minor league deal, paying him a prorated $1.25 million in 2024, with a mutual option for 2025 of $2.25 million and performance bonuses.
Alex Stumpf recently had a breakdown of the Pirates decision to give German another chance, including comments from General Manager Ben Cherington about how the club evaluated the previous incidents.
The Saga of Aroldis Chapman
In 2016, Aroldis Chapman allegedly choked his girlfriend during a domestic dispute, and went into a separate garage fired a gun into a wall. The headlines at the time sensationalized the gun use, and Chapman to this day has denied hurting his girlfriend, Cristina Barnea. He does express regret over the gun. He and Barnea are still together today.
The Yankees gave Chapman his first opportunity, signing the closer during his prime, not long after this incident. They kept him on their roster until he was traded to the Cubs at the 2016 deadline. They later signed him back, and he remained in the organization until the end of the 2022 season. Chapman was left off the playoff roster that year for missing a mandatory workout, following a season where he struggled on the mound.
After a 2023 season where he rebounded with the Royals and Rangers, the Pirates signed Chapman to a one-year deal for $10.5 million. Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said in 2016 that people would forget the incident with Chapman, but that doesn’t seem likely and hasn’t been the case in today’s age of social media.
With the additions of Chapman and German, the Pirates have two players who have formerly been through the league’s Domestic Violence program. Chapman hasn’t had any incidents since 2016, and German hasn’t had domestic incidents since 2019, but they’ve both had non-Domestic incidents that have led to their removal from the Yankees over the last two seasons.
Now, they’re both members of the Pirates.
Second Chances or Final Chances?
If the Yankees are a team that can choose who they want in their organization — to the point where they can maintain a nearly-50-year policy restricting facial hair — then it makes sense why they parted ways with Chapman and German.
In the case of Chapman, they gave him a second chance immediately following his late-2015 incident, at a time when he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Chapman’s time with the Yankees ended in 2022, when he was struggling and violating team rules. They’ve shown with Chapman that they would afford a second chance to someone with elite skills.
In the case of German, the Yankees gave him a second chance in 2021, after his 2019 incident caused him to miss the remainder of the season and be suspended for all of 2020’s shortened year. His time with the organization ended after his alcohol-fueled incident in the clubhouse last year, during a season where he was putting up below-average results.
In each case, the Yankees can find players who can perform while adhering to their policies — from the simple ones that regulate facial hair, to the more serious rules that would get even Don Mattingly kicked off the team for violations.
In each case, the Pirates had an opportunity to get a talented player, with the gamble that each player has questions about their professionalism and personal life. And, the implementation of their talent.
When you’re the Yankees, you can turn people away due to facial hair.
When you’re the Pirates, you might have to turn to people who haven’t had the cleanest records in the past.
The biggest factor for me, in each domestic violence accusation, is that both players in question are still with the same women, years later. Both players have had children with those women since the incidents. That adds some reassurance that the incidents were confined to those moments, with the hope that those players grew from those moments with the league intervention.
There are still remaining questions — Chapman skipping the workout and German’s alcohol abuse. Chapman showed his professionalism last year with two organizations. German will get a chance to show he’s rebounded from his personal issues this year with the Pirates.
There are going to be complaints that the Pirates added players with imperfect past lives. Today’s social justice fueled world allows anyone to score points by strongly condemning a person who has done anything wrong. That’s why no one will forget the incidents that Chapman and German had. If German has a good season in Pittsburgh this year, and goes to a new team in 2025, there will be a social justice warrior in that new city who will look to gain perception points by taking a tough stance against the moments from Chapman in 2016 and German in 2019. It’s easy to win social media points when you act like a sinless soul casting stones. It’s more difficult taking a nuanced look at humanity.
Chapman and German are people. They’re people who have spent their lives dedicated to a career in baseball. Chapman has been playing since being a teenager, and was one of the highest sought after defectors from Cuba in his early-20s. German was signed to his first deal at the age of 16 in 2009 with the Marlins, and was likely scouted for years prior to that. Today’s social justice world calls for both to be discarded from the game for good, regardless of how much time and effort they put into this career throughout their lives.
Major League Baseball serves as an example for many, but if the league portrays itself as a league of perfect people, then their example isn’t relevant to humanity. Chapman and German both represent people with flawed pasts. As they move on with their lives, and as they conduct interviews explaining how they moved on, they can provide examples for other people in similar situations.
As comedian Dave Chappelle aptly put it, “taking a man’s livelihood away from him is akin to killing him.” Today’s social justice world pushes for this silent death penalty of career removal as a justification to punish certain mistakes that wouldn’t carry as strong of a punishment under the legal system, or the league’s own punishments. Chapman and German have both served out their punishments. If they grow as people from their mistakes, they are bound to be questioned in their careers about the growth. Those answers they’ll provide are far more valuable to the public than the thousandth example of a seemingly perfect 20-something-aged player preaching hard work every single day.
If neither player produces, they won’t find chances to play the game of baseball. If they can still do the job, they should be given the opportunity, as long as they have their lives in order. Chapman is coming off a year where he had a 3.09 ERA in 58.1 innings between two teams. German had an inconsistent 2023 season, but threw a perfect game a little over a month before his incident in the Yankees clubhouse. There’s a chance for both to be productive with the Pirates.
Baseball is a game of the mind. It requires stability with your emotions to handle the pressure and the flows of the slow-progressing game. If German, for example, hasn’t worked out his issues, he’s unlikely to have the mindset to perform and remain in the majors. His production would likely be similar to 2023, where he did have the perfect game, but also had 15 earned runs in 5.1 innings across his previous two outings. His entire season saw those highs and lows, and his turn to substance abuse during that type of season is a habit that will continue to sink any future season he has — until he gets rid of the habit for good. The Pirates can give him an opportunity and an environment to get beyond those issues, and become a more stable and complete person and player. Getting out of the high pressure environment in New York, with every player presenting the picture of perfection, will also help.
The Yankees institute a no-facial-hair policy, even for the best players in the game. That leads to an extra step each morning, where players need to wake up and shave their face to put forward a clean image. Most of these players have already shown that they can handle the challenges of the MLB lifestyle without this added rule and effort each day. That extra facial hair removal time isn’t going to make-or-break careers.
German and Chapman have displayed challenges in maintaining the MLB-level lifestyle of discipline and self-restraint. The Yankees can turn down those types of players when they no longer produce on the field, due to the excessive winning culture from the Bronx Bombers.
While the Pirates can’t have a team of active domestic abusers or substance abusers, they can be an organization who gives second or final chances to players moving beyond their past issues. They can be an organization that not only tries to develop prospects into proven players, but who can help proven players develop into people who can maintain consistency across their personal lives. With one World Series title since 1976 and only 15 winning seasons out of 48, the Pirates can’t afford to be so selective with players who have made mistakes.
Every person deserves the opportunity to grow from their mistakes. Since they’re on the opposite end of the spectrum of the Yankees, the Pirates should be a place where baseball players can go to get a second or a final chance to get their lives in order. Chapman and German can become positive examples from negative situations, while helping the Pirates turn their own negative situation around.
