The New York Yankees‘ top young prospects have struggled to start the 2022 season in the minor leagues. However, the No. 2 prospect behind Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, has apparently been terrible in Single-A with the Tampa Bay Tarpons.
Dominguez is hitting .223 with two homers and nine RBIs over 94 at-bats, recording 21 hits and a .277 OBP.
Having been touted as a five-tool prospect with elite tangible traits, this isn’t exactly the start the Yankees had hoped for Dominguez, but it is a long season, and he has plenty of time to turn things around.
“It’s certainly not a prospect to get excited about in terms of a surefire thing in the major leagues, which I think is really what he was being touted,” the scout said, via Randy Miller of NJ.com. “Dominguez looks considerably worse than last year.”
The Bombers offered Dominguez a $5.1 million signing bonus out of the Dominican Republic in hopes he would become the next Mike Trout. Many compared him to greats like Lou Gehrig, which was extremely premature given he was 18 years old at the time and never touched a minor-league affiliate team.
The scout was rather harsh on Dominguez so early in the season, noting that he’s gotten worse every single time he’s laid eyes on him.
“Every time I’ve seen him, it’s gotten worse,” the scout said.
Over 22 games, Dominguez has five errors, showcasing a downturn in defensive efficiency. Dominguez has struck out on 33 of his 94 at-bats, which hovers around 30%, nothing we haven’t seen at the professional level.
Jasson is a switch-hitting batter, so it takes a bit more time to adjust on both sides of the plate, given he has to split his reps in half in the box.
The scout went on to point out how often he swings and misses instead of making good contact with strikes. That is the major concern up to this point, not his defensive liabilities this year, doubling his errors compared to last season already.
“There’s a lot of question marks in the profile,” he said. “The swing-and-miss is really concerning at this point.”