Yankees' Jasson Dominguez carted off field after crashing into outfield wall

Jasson Dominguez’s career has been defined by tough breaks, and Thursday afternoon unfortunately seemed to present another one.

Dominguez was injured on the first play of Thursday’s game against the Rangers after crashing hard into the leftfield wall at Yankee Stadium.

Former Met Brandon Nimmo laced a 101-mph, 375-foot line drive to leftfield, and Dominguez — making his second start of the season in leftfield — managed to hold on for a spectacular catch as he banged into the wall, which has a chain-link fence protecting electronic advertisements.

Jasson Dominguez makes a tremendous catch but leaves the game on a cart after hitting the wall HARD

Ryan McMahon enters the game at 3B, Amed Rosario goes from 3B to RF and Cody Bellinger goes from RF to LF pic.twitter.com/OkaTwAUvtC

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) May 7, 2026

Dominguez, who appeared to be tending to his shoulder, was down for several moments before exiting the game on a medical cart. YES Network cameras caught an emotional Dominguez leaving the field.

The Yankees announced a few innings later that Dominguez is in concussion protocol and undergoing an MRI of his left shoulder at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

He was examined by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad at the stadium and underwent initial concussion assessment. He’ll be monitored and evaluated over the next several days.

Thursday was the second time in Dominguez’s nine games this season that he exited with an injury, and both were against the Rangers. On April 29 in Texas, Nathan Eovaldi hit Dominguez directly in the left elbow with an 89-mph cutter. The Yankees said the injury was a contusion, and he missed only one game as he was back in the lineup three days later.

The 23-year-old started the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and has been back with the big-league club since April 27. He entered Thursday’s game — his ninth start of the season and second in leftfield, with most of his duties coming at designated hitter in place of the injured Giancarlo Stanton — batting .200 (6-for-30) with a .617 OPS, a home run and four RBIs.

“The Martian” technically is in his fourth MLB season, though he played only eight games in 2023 and 18 in 2024 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery in between, and knows just how quickly things can change.

“Getting sent down and being up there, it's a good reminder that — don't take this for granted,” he told Newsday before Thursday’s game.

Dominguez’s defense has been an oft-criticized aspect of his game. He had negative-9 outs above average last season, ranking in the third percentile in MLB, according to Baseball Savant. Yankees third base and outfield coach Luis Rojas has been working closely with Dominguez on his defense and told Newsday before Thursday’s game that he has “100%” seen improvement and credited Scranton-Wilkes Barre defensive coach Raul Dominguez for the work he did with him.

“Everybody in the defensive department in our minor leagues has done a great job with Jasson, and they had really good conversations with them throughout spring training, the offseason and in Scranton,” Rojas said. “And now Jasson's here, and I can see the improvement.”