A daily look at New York Yankees News and Rumors of interest to Yankee fans!
Is Jasson Dominguez just hype?: Every year you see all types of baseball prospect lists, but over time how well do the hyped-up future major leaguers do?  The Yankees are one of just five teams of the 30 MLB teams to have a prospect on the top 50 or top 100 MLB prospects list for the last 17 years. The other teams are the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Colorado Rockies, the Cleveland Indians, and the Tampa Bay Rays. Regardless of prospects, the five teams combined have only been able to produce one World Series win over the span.  The fact is that most candidates, no matter how hyped, end up as average players or never reach the major leagues.
When MLB’s Pipeline debuted their list in 2004, Dioner Navarro was the Yankee prospect on that list. He did play an incredible 13 years in the majors but never got beyond being a backup catcher. The Yankees signed Navarro in 2003, and he was named Minor League Player of the Year. He made his major league debut at the end of the 2004 season.  He ended up not good enough for the Yankees, but good enough to be traded. He ended his career having 33 at-bats with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016 while playing for eight different teams during his career. Navarro, while never making it big, did stay in the majors for a career, many prospects aren’t that lucky.
Enter Jasson Dominguez. Every once in a while, a club is lucky enough to latch onto a “super prospect.” Super prospects like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Steven Strasburg, the Upton brothers, and a few others usually succeed and transfer from the super prospect status and become true superstars in the majors. Baseball managers and scouts alike place Jasson Dominguez in the same league with those mentioned above. Some say they have never seen a 16-year-old with the talent Dominguez displays. The young switch hitter has a powerful bat, fantastic speed and agility on the bases and a cannon of an arm that matches players that are already in the majors.   From everything this writer has seen and heard about Jasson, he is less hype and will be more like the next Mickey Mantle for the Yankees.  The Yankees farm system has dramatically improved in the last few years, producing major league stars like Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and Gary Sanchez. Don’t be surprised if Jasson skips many of the stops that most players go through in the minors. He may end up in AA Trenton before the end of the season.
Yankees are ready if Higgy doesn’t perform: The New York Yankees appear ready if the Yankees backup catcher Higoashioka doesn’t perform as expected. The Yankees have previously stated that they are happy with Kyle Higashioka as the backup catcher to Gary Sanchez upon the loss of Austin Romine to the Tigers. However, they haven’t portrayed their trust in Higashioka as they have bolstered their backstop presence with Erik Kratz and Chris Iannetta, and they have added their third veteran catcher of the offseason on Tuesday, signing ex-Met Josh Thole, The New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported. Thole has not played in the major leagues since 2016, spending time in the minor-league systems of the Tigers, Dodgers, and Angels.
Although the Yankees appear happy with Kyle Higashioka as the backup to Gary Sanchez, their actions have shown that that is untrue. Thole, a career .242 hitter, joins Chris Iannetta and Erik Kratz as the Yankees’ catcher signings since Austin Romine signed with the Tigers. The Yankees are likely hoping none of them make the major leagues and will provide insurance behind Gary Sanchez and Kyle Higashioka. Many question the team’s favor with Sanchez as they further question their faith in Higashioka’s durability to play day to day if Sanchez is injured long term. Thole is just another backup for the Yankees.
Is Mike Ford major league ready? Mike Ford is an interesting story. Not unlike many that hope to play in the majors, Ford played seven years in the majors and never really made his mark. He had to be thinking after seven years that maybe he should find a new line of work. But all that changed during this past season. Between April 18th and August 4th, Mike bounced back and forth from Scranton Wilkes/Barre and Yankee Stadium. But with the Yankees unprecedented number of injuries, on August 4th, he found himself as a regular Yankee player playing at first base and being a DH much of the season. So what did he do, he played in 50 games hitting .259 and slamming 12 home runs, that’s one home run in every four games while providing adequate defense at first base. On September 1, he made franchise history, being the first rookie to hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run in a Yankee win over the Athletics.
When I first saw Ford at the plate, I said to myself, now that’s not the body of a first baseman. You could tell he was fat. But he sure did perform beyond expectations. So what’s in store for the popular player? During spring training, he will battle with the now healthy Luke Voit for an opening day shot at being the first baseman. The general feeling is that Voit will get the job, and Ford will find himself back at Scranton Wilkes/Barre. But after how he stood up to the spotlight last year, you can be sure the Yankees will have no trouble promoting him back to the Stadium. Baseball Reference.com projects that Ford will see near 300 plate appearances and hit .257 while hitting 15 home runs with an OPS of .834. Reports indicate that Ford will show up at spring training slimmed down by nearly 20 pounds and ready to perform.