Yankees' Estevan Florial is back in the big leagues

BOSTON — The Yankees finally have decided to go with the Flo.

They called up former top prospect Estevan Florial from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday to replace the injured Jasson Dominguez for the opener of a four-game series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park (which was rained out and rescheduled for 1:35 p,m. Tuesday as part of a split doubleheader). Florial was in the lineup as the centerfielder and No. 9 hitter.

Florial, 25, made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, played one inning as a pinch runner and defensive replacement, and was designated for assignment the next day.

As the Yankees have struggled to find offense and failed to identify a productive leftfielder all season, Florial had a monster year in Triple-A, batting .284 with 28 home runs, 79 RBIs, a .945 OPS and 25 stolen bases.

But the Yankees resisted any urge to promote him, often citing the fact that he  no longer was on the 40-man roster after he was DFA’d on April 1. Florial went unclaimed by the other 29 teams, which is telling about how far his star had fallen since he was ranked as the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect by Baseball America in 2019.  

After going unclaimed, Florial returned to Scranton and thrived, all the while waiting for another chance.

“Everybody wants to be in the big leagues,” he  said. “For me, I’m just trying to control what I can control at that time and play as hard as I could.”

The Yankees had 19 games left going into Monday. Florial should get to play in “a lot” of them, manager Aaron Boone said.  

“As we all know with Flo, he has all the talent to be successful up here, all the tools to be successful,” Boone said. “It's just about putting them together and certainly putting them together at this level. He's been much more consistent and tightening up the areas of weakness and it's allowed him to go out and really put together a pretty monster Triple-A season.”

With Dominguez heading for surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and no other centerfielder on the roster, Florial could be in the mix for Opening Day 2024. That seemed unlikely during the summer when the Yankees gave outfield at-bats to Aaron Hicks and Jake Bauers and Billy McKinney and Willie Calhoun and Franchy Cordero and Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Greg Allen and Oswaldo Cabrera and a couple of guys from Section 203 while Florial toiled productively in Triple-A.

“Hopefully he can take advantage and build off of what's been a strong season,” Boone said. “Parlay that into some big-league success and really catapult him into the winter and put himself in a really good situation.”

Florial will have to show more than he has in his previous limited big-league opportunities over the past four seasons, when he hit a combined .185 in 63 plate appearances with the Yankees. He struck out in 21 of those plate appearances, and a failure to make consistent contact has dogged Florial throughout his minor league career.  

Even in his impressive 2023, the lefthanded hitter has struck out 144 times in 482 plate appearances for Scranton.

“I think it's consistency,” Boone said. “He has all the ability. He's got an eye at the plate. He's got plate discipline. He's always had some swing-and-miss stuff, but I think he always has all the tools: speed, power, plate discipline. So you're not surprised any time he does go out and have success. It's just doing it now on a little more consistent level.”

Dominguez, who was placed on the 10-day injured list, is expected to be out for at least the next nine to 10 months, although that timetable could be altered once he actually has the surgery (it hasn’t yet been scheduled, Boone said).  

The 20-year-old “Martian” made quite an impression in his first eight big-league games, hitting .258 with four home runs and seven RBIs.  

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.