Yankees' Jasson Dominguez letting bat and glove do the talking in spring training
Yankees' Jasson Dominguez taking part in the outfield exercises during spring training on Feb. 15 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Jasson Dominguez showed up for spring training with his ticket all but punched for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the start of the season.
Unlike a year ago when he arrived in Tampa with the starting job in left field his to lose and, struggles defensively aside, he did not lose it.
Dominguez knew his fate this spring because general manager Brian Cashman multiple times in the offseason said it was in the outfielder’s best interest to play on a daily basis.
That became an impossibility over the winter when centerfielder Trent Grisham accepted the qualifying offer in November and Cody Bellinger re-signed in January. The return of those two players give the Yankees a starting outfield, from left to right, of Bellinger, Grisham and three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge.
“I would concede it’s in his best interest to be getting everyday reps,” Cashman said of Dominguez shortly after spring training started.
The 23-year-old, whatever disappointment he unquestionably felt privately, said all the right things at the onset of camp.
“That’s one thing that I can’t control,” Dominguez said in mid-February of starting the season in the minors. “I don’t make the decisions. I do my best to get the best results I can get, and that’s what I’m focusing on right now.”
The focus has shown on the field as the switch-hitting Dominguez, considered among the top positions prospects in the sport during his fast rise through the Yankees’ system, has responded exactly how the club would have hoped.
In addition to exhibiting what one rival AL scout characterized as “definite improvement” in the field, Dominguez has hit consistently all spring. Including showing some progress from his far weaker right side.
Dominguez, a natural righty who slashed .204/.279/.290 from the right side last year compared to .274/.348/.420 batting lefthanded, went 2-for-3 in Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over the Phillies at BayCare Park, crushing a 1-and-2 fastball from lefthander Tanner Banks to left-center in the top of the first inning. Dominguez, who has one career regular-season homer from the right side, is 10-for-30 (.333) with two homers, two doubles and a .944 OPS overall this spring.
As mentioned, there has been progress in the field as well, even with the occasional poor route taken to the ball or, as was the case in a game last Thursday against the Twins, Dominguez twice throwing to the wrong base.
But he’s responded to those challenges as well. Last spring Dominguez started the Grapefruit League looking, relatively speaking, lost in left and that didn’t measurably improve when camp broke. That extended into the regular season and, by midseason, the club saw Dominguez as a liability in the field. It caused his playing time to shrivel up in the second half (the consistent everyday production of Bellinger, Grisham and, of course, Judge played a role in that as well).
But after what Boone called a “rough” day in left last Thursday, Dominguez came back with strong back-to-back performance in the field over the weekend – first in West Palm Beach against the Nationals and a day later in Port St. Lucie against the Mets. In the latter game, Dominguez made two nice on-the-run catches and featured the throwing arm that helped make him, in the eyes of more than a few scouts, a five-tool prospect. In the second inning against the Mets, Dominguez positioned himself to make the catch on an A.J. Ewing liner, then fired an accurate on-the-line ball to catcher Ali Sanchez to get a tagging Vidal Brujan at the plate.
“Coming off a game where he made some wrong throws, that’s what was good to see,” Boone said Sunday. “The good thing is he’s played a lot, he’s worked a lot, he’s getting better. That’s probably one of the best parts about this trip over here, these last two games, is seeing how well he’s moved in the outfield. I feel like you’ve seen his athleticism out there.”
For his part, Dominguez said he feels “a lot more comfortable” in left compared to last year.
It’s shown.
As has his maturity in handling the inevitability, assuming there are no injuries to the starting outfield the rest of camp, of starting the season where no player who has gotten a taste of the big leagues wants to start.
But he’s controlling what he can control, which counts for something.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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