The New York Yankees recently named their summer camp roster, composed of a variety of different players, including ones that have experience and others that are young to the system and are trying to earn a spot on the active roster.
A condensed season has expanded the active roster from 26 to 30 players, and the Yankees will start out spring training 2.0 with 59 players available to work with. They will have to work their way down to 30, but the talent they have available will make that difficult.
Players such as Clarke Schmidt, Deivi Garcia, Albert Abreu, and more, all represent young talent that can claw and scratch their way into the conversation.
However, manager Aaron Boone and Co. left off one young slugger who has developed into a sensation in the Yankees farm system.
17-year-old Jasson Dominguez has climbed the prospect rankings over the past year, showing off a complete toolset of traits and incredible talent in the batter’s box. Ultimately, the loss of the minor-league season will hurt the development of the Yankees’ younger players, so their top prospects involved in spring training gives them a chance to work out with the big leaguers and refine their craft.
The New York Yankees are doing what’s best for the team
Brian Cashman, on a conference call Tuesday, stated that the team wasn’t looking to add a ton of prospects to the roster, as they don’t want to be in a position to dip into young players that don’t have the quality to feature at the top level just yet. The next month of training is more about establishing a foundation for a 60-game regular season that is composed of capable players and the top of the crop from the minors.
This ultimately puts Dominguez in the back seat. In a regular season, taking a chance on a young talent like Dominguez would make sense, but when everything is on the line, and the playoffs are essentially won in the first half of this shortened campaign, no risks can be taken.
“There was a lot of speculation of players like a Jasson Dominguez or things of that nature,†Cashman said. “We didn’t do any of that because ultimately, the eye is on the prize, which is, we have a 60-game sprint in a COVID environment to qualify for the playoffs and take a shot at a 2020 world championship title.â€
The anticipation of injuries and potential for being exposed to COVID-19 makes this a very tumultuous situation. Cashman mentioned that they have to remain efficient and safe, adding only the best players to the summer camp roster to battle it out.