Ryan Garcia
Unless an injury occurs to one of the Yankees’ three starting outfielders, it would be more than fair to assume that Jasson Dominguez will open the 2026 season in Scranton.
The switch-hitting outfielder isn’t fighting for a job on the team as much as he’s trying to show that he can step up if the team has an injury, and he has certainly showed up at the plate during the Grapefruit League.
Hitting .371 with a 1.081 OPS through 12 games of Spring Training, Dominguez is doing a lot of positive things including generating hard contact, hitting the ball in the air, and being aggressive on pitches in-zone.
A time will come where the Yankees will need Jasson Dominguez and if he continues working towards that moment, he might just steal a job and never look back.
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Over his MLB career, Jasson Dominguez has posted a 46.7% GB%, which explains the underwhelming .397 SLG% despite having above-average raw power.
By getting on top of the ball or rolling it over, Dominguez has struggled to get the most out of his power, especially since this hasn’t been paired with a high line drive rate, but so far in Spring Training we’re seeing better batted ball data.
He’s got a 50% flyball rate and a 23.1% line drive rate, both of which are higher than his career norms by a significant margin, which is leading to more power and a better batting average.
Dominguez is still pulling the ball and while he’s chasing a good bit, he’s also hyper aggressive in-zone, similar to what we saw last season.
This approach worked well against right-handed pitching last season as the switch-hitting outfielder recorded a 116 wRC+ in those matchups, and that’s where he can provide immediate value to the Yankees if injuries occur.
Giancarlo Stanton is certainly still one of the most powerful hitters in the league, but his double tennis elbow and repeated history of lower-body injuries would suggest that he carries high injury risk for 2026.
He’s missed at least 40 games in each of the last four seasons, that would open a lane for Jasson Dominguez to come up and hit against RHP with someone like Paul Goldschmidt being his short-side platoon against lefties.
For now, he’ll play at the Triple-A level with a focus on improving against lefties and in the outfield, which he can do by getting everyday reps for the Scranton RailRiders.
Having depth isn’t a bad thing; the lack of internal options if Stanton were to get hurt or if an outfielder underperformed burnt the Yankees in the 2023 season and during 2024 when J.D. Davis hit in the top-half of the lineup against LHP.
Opportunities will arise for Jasson Dominguez, he just needs to make sure he’s ready to seize the moment when it comes.
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