Ryan Garcia
Jasson Dominguez was officially optioned by the Yankees earlier this week, and its easy to read that as the end of his time as a key part of this roster.
They have Cody Bellinger under contract for the next five seasons and will play left field while Aaron Judge is their franchise player out in right field.
With that said, I’m not sure that this is the declaration that many are making it out to be, but rather a setback for him that ultimately could set up a greater comeback.
Dominguez is a talented player and I believe the Yankees see that as well, but his flaws must be worked on and the only way that can happen is in the Minor Leagues.
He’s a 23-year-old outfielder who displayed an ability to mash right-handed pitching, if he can develop some of the other skills a little bit more, he could become that full-time contributor we envisioned when he debuted.
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The Yankees Gave Jasson Dominguez Chances, Now They’re Giving Him Development
The first criticism here is that the Yankees did not give Jasson Dominguez enough runway compared to players like Anthony Volpe or Austin Wells, which isn’t exactly a fair comparison.
We could delve into the difference in quality of depth, but I think this talking point gives a revisionist perspective on how these events transpired for the former no. 1 prospect.
New York aggressively called him up after a few games in Triple-A where he lit the world on fire before tearing his UCL, an extremely unfortunate incident that is blameless.
Given that he would not be ready for 2024, Brian Cashman acquired Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham for left field and the bench, which should have given Jasson Dominguez runway…but he pulled his oblique and missed even more time.
When he finally caught fire again in Triple-A the Yankees brought him up, but his poor offensive production coupled with atrocious left field defense culminated for -0.1 WAR, which wasn’t going to win a starting job.
The 2025 Yankees had an open spot in their outfield for Jasson Dominguez and despite a Spring Training full of poor defensive plays in left field and not great offense against righties, they made him their starting left fielder.
Trent Grisham hitting 34 home runs with a 134 wRC+ made it impossible for the Yankees to make any other decision with who should start down the stretch, and they were not left with an easy choice this winter.
On one hand they could have put all of the pressure in the world on Jasson Dominguez, or they could have retained two productive outfielders to give them the best shot at a title in 2026.
I don’t know if the choice to keep Grisham will work; I have faith that his breakout was a result of real changes to his game but there is no way to know that without the 2026 season playing out for real.
What I do know is that I’ve seen them give too much runway to a young player with severe flaws while not having an internal option to relieve them, it might be the very thing that destroys Anthony Volpe.
Early Signs in Spring Training Gives Me Hope For Jasson Dominguez
Jasson Dominguez torched the ball against one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game as Framber Valdez allowed three batted balls above 100 MPH in the Yankees’ loss to the Tigers earlier today.
Not much attention has been paid to the fact that he had an OPS over .800 against lefties during his small Spring Training sample size with really good batted ball data to go with it.
Hitting the ball hard and in the air has allowed him to really put up strong numbers in camp, Dominguez has ran really high groundball rates which have often limited the overall power numbers.
I can’t accurately conclude that he’ll suddenly breakout based on a limited sample size of exhibition games, but these are the kinds of markers you’d want to see if you were hoping for one.
Just from watching him play I also feel like the left field blunders are a lot less frequent than what we saw during Spring Training last year, which hopefully lead to better defense in left field.
This was all while knowing that unless someone in that outfield got hurt, he was going to end up in Scranton instead of New York, which is a good reflection of his work ethic and character.
If he dominates in Triple-A, a spot will open up for him in the Major Leagues with the Yankees or another organization depending on what New York’s needs are during the season.
There was a lot to like about this Grapefruit League run for Jasson Dominguez, and while I think the Yankees had to protect themselves from being overly reliant on a young player, I find myself intruiged by what he can do in 2026.
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