What Yankees know about Jimmy Cordero’s season-ending suspension, how they reacted

NEW YORK — On reliever row in the Yankees clubhouse, the stall between Nick Ramirez and Albert Abreu’s was empty by the time the media was let in at 3:10 Wednesday afternoon.

Even the nameplate was removed.

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Pitcher Jimmy Cordero didn’t make an appearance either to explain or apologize in the wake of being suspended for the remainder of the season for breaking MLB’s domestic violence policy.

Cordero approached Boone about a week ago to inform him that he was being investigated for a domestic violence incident. Nobody heard anything else until after Tuesday’s game when the Dominican pitcher told Boone and selected players that a season-ending suspension was forthcoming.

“We talked,” Judge said. “He filled me in and told me what was going to happen before I heard from anyone else. I just said, ‘Hey, learn from this.’ I was pretty upset. I know a lot of guys on the team are upset.”

What happened?

Nothing has come out yet publicly and the two Yankees who commented before Wednesday night’s game against the Orioles, manager Aaron Boone and injured captain Aaron Judge, claim they know nothing.

“I don’t have any details,” Boone said. “I don’t know what went down. Part of the idea of the of the investigation and the policy in place, it’s meant to work that way. It’s an investigation. They do their investigation and then come down with their ruling.”

Eighteen players have been suspended since MLB has had a domestic violence policy since August 2015. The Yankees are the only club that has gone through this three times, first with reliever Aroldis Chapman in 2016 and again with Domingo German from 2019-20.

The others were welcomed back after serving their suspensions, 30 games for Chapman and 60 for German (reduced from 81).

Judge said it’s too early to tell if he’d be fine with Cordero rejoining the Yankees next season.

“That’s a ways away,” Judge said. “I’m not sure. I’ll have a better answer for you when the season’s over on that one.”

The Yankees want Cordero to go through counseling, become a better man and then think about resuming his baseball career.

“It’s a sad situation,” Judge said. “I’m just thinking about Cordero’s family and his wife and kids. It’s a tough situation that you never want anybody to see go through. … I’m hoping he can get some help, his family can get some help and they can get through this process because it’s a very terrible incident.”

The Yankees replaced Cordero on their 26-man roster by calling up Triple-A right-hander Randy Vasquez, who had been picked earlier this week to start Wednesday night’s game against Baltimore.

Cordero, 31, was in his first season with the Yankees after joining the organization last year on a minor-league contract. The Dominican was added to the 40-man roster last winter, won an Opening Day roster spot during spring training and then had a solid first half pitching to a 3.86 ERA over 31 outings.

Cordero last pitched Sunday in St. Louis, allowing three runs in two innings in a 5-1 Yankees loss to the Cardinals. His suspension probably saved lefty reliever Nick Ramirez of being farmed out.

“As far as bullpen, that’s baseball,” Boone said. “We’ll deal with that. This is this is real life and a much more serious situation that’s going on.”

“You get that news … it’s sad. Your heart goes out to everyone involved.”

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.