The New York Yankees are packed full of star players, ranging from Aaron Judge to Giancarlo Stanton, but one of their youth prospects continues to draw incredible attention, despite never playing an inning at the minor-league level.
Jasson Dominguez, a Dominican Republic native, who’s just 18 years old, stands at 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds. Some say he could be even better than Mike Trout, who is the consensus best player in the MLB and has been for quite some time.
Trout has never hit below .281 and has posted 30+ homers six times in his career. He is an incredible talent with great defense and unparalleled offense. Comparing him to Dominguez is simply inadvisable, but one reporter believes Dominguez could even be better based on his tangible traits right now.
Kiley McDaniel, author of ESPN’s top 100 MLB prospects list, believes that Dominguez should be rated higher than Mike Tout when he was “The Martian’s” age.
“You can kind of pick whatever name you want. Technically, (Dominguez is) more advanced than Trout was at the same age because Trout went, what was it, [25th] overall as an 18-year-old, and this guy is not 18 yet and he was considered the best 16-year-old in the world a year ago, and he’s probably still the best 17-year-old,†McDaniel said last week on a conference call.
The Yankees do have something special in Jasson:
Dominguez was recently recorded hitting a ball 117 mph, a number that most professionals can’t even touch. All of the hype is simply based on power and athleticism, but the mental aspect of being a professional baseball player cannot be forgotten. When the lights go on, and fans are chanting your name in a big moment, the pressure can be overwhelming for most, and Dominguez has never come through big in that moment. While Trout and the Angels have struggled to perform at a high-level, he’s always a reliable player that comes through in the clutch.
Of course, this comparison is not meant to look at the two realistically in a microscope, it’s rather meant to focus o  the physical similarities, which are uncanny. Ultimately, with the hype revolving around Dominguez, if he doesn’t end up becoming one of the best players in the MLB, it will be one of the biggest whiffs in baseball history.