Erik Boland: Jasson Dominguez is back with Yankees; the question is, how long will he last?
The Yankees' Jasson Domínguez celebrates his home run against the Chicago Cubs with teammates during the fourth inning of a spring training game on March 24 in Mesa, Ariz. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
ARLINGTON, Texas - "The Martian” again has landed in the big leagues.
Whether Jasson Dominguez’s stay there is a long one or shorter than he’d like, of course, is the question.
It is, at the moment, an unanswerable one.
For now, it’s enough that he’s back and, more significant, how he put himself in position to be back.
The one-time touted prospect, who made his 2026 debut Monday night against the Rangers batting sixth as the designated hitter – he went 1-for-4 in the Yankees 4-2 victory – has been a fan-favorite pretty much from the time he signed with the Yankees at the age of 16 in July 2019 out of the Dominican Republic for a still franchise-record $5.1 million.
He started the season in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre because of the organization’s desire for the 23-year-old to get the everyday reps that simply weren’t available in the big leagues.
Not with a starting outfield of, from left to right, Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge.
There were also the switch-hitter’s oft-discussed issues batting right-handed and Dominguez’s difficulty last season in making the adjustment to leftfield after spending much of his time in the minors during his development playing his natural position of centerfield.
Dominguez entered spring training knowing, regardless of how he played, he would be ticketed for Scranton to start the year.
Many players, especially younger ones who have already had a taste of the majors as Dominguez had – 149 career games entering this season – would not handle that circumstance well.
Dominguez handled it, producing one of the best springs of any Yankee, hitting .347 with three homers, two doubles and a triple with a 1.062 OPS in 17 Grapefruit League games
As expected, his reward was a spot on the Scranton roster, and Dominguez handled that, too.
Players in the minors have an expression, one passed down through the generations, that goes something like this: “If you don’t like it here, play better.”
In other words, control what you can control. Be where your feet are. Don’t play general manager. Put yourself in position to be in position. Meaning, in position for a call to the majors if and/or when the opportunity arises.
Dominguez put himself in position, hitting .326 with three homers and an .893 OPS in 24 games at the time of his call-up. He has exceled batting right-handed so far in Triple-A, going 9-for-20 with a homer from that side compared to 21-for-72 (.292) with two homers batting lefty.
Defensively in left?
“Better,” one rival AL scout assigned to the Yankees’ system said. “It’s not great and I wouldn’t even say good yet, but it’s better. You can see he’s worked at it.”
The Yankees didn’t have outright concerns about how Dominguez, super popular among his big-league teammates because of his outgoing personality and work ethic, would deal with his circumstance. But there was a touch of uncertainty.
“I’ve been there. I’ve gone back to Triple-A and it’s not the easiest thing to do,” manager Aaron Boone said a couple of weeks ago.
Dominguez’s performance, both in spring training and the first month of the minor league season, ended up reinforcing what the organization already felt about the player.
Speaking before Monday night’s game, Boone said Dominguez “deserves a lot of credit.”
“I think one thing the last four months has revealed is Jasson Dominguez’s character,” Boone continued. “As a younger player, when you’ve been here and you’ve had some success at the big- league level and you gotta go back [to the minors], a lot of times you see guys struggle and not do well and pout a little bit. He hasn’t done any of that. He’s worked hard, he’s performing and he deserves to be here right now.”
Dominguez, who met the Yankees at their team hotel in suburban Dallas, said there were “very good reasons…for me to go to Triple-A.”
Mainly, the fact that Grisham, Bellinger and Judge were ahead of him for everyday reps and the work he still needed to do in his development.
“I understood it,” Dominguez said.
Though Dominguez was at DH Monday night, Boone said he would be comfortable starting him in the outfield in one of the following two games as the Rangers will throw righties Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, respectively.
But it is not clear how long Dominguez will stay here. After Monday’s game, the Yankees put Giancarlo Stanton on the injured list with a low-grade right calf strain. That made Dominguez the roster move for fifth starter Luis Gil getting demoted to Triple-A after Sunday’s poor performance in Houston.
“Of course,” Dominguez said of seeing this as an opportunity to stick in the majors. “Down there in Triple-A, that’s what you work for. You want to get back in the majors. Now that I’m here, I’m trying to enjoy my time and help the team.”
For as long, or short, as it lasts.
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.
