TAMPA, Fla. — For the past two weeks, Jasson Domínguez has taken up residency in left field at the team’s player development complex, spending hours and hours learning the nuances of the territory.
It’s been a crash course that the New York Yankees hope prevents their top prospect from looking like a crash dummy.
“Wall drills,” outfield coordinator Luis Rojas said. “Throwing to bases. High fly balls. Slices. Shoestring catches with topspin. Sliding catches. Diving catches.”
And it’s been at the urging of Domínguez, who has until Opening Day on March 27 to prove he’s ready for a regular major-league role at a position still new to him.
“He wants all that,” Rojas said. “We had that conversation. He wants it.”
Though the Yankees maintain publicly that Domínguez — a center fielder going through the minors — still has to earn the left-field starting job, no one seems to be competing with the 22-year-old rookie for it.
The Yankees want Trent Grisham as their backup center fielder. These days, Giancarlo Stanton has become an everyday designated hitter. Fellow rookie Everson Pereira seems like a long shot. And with Aaron Judge slated to return to right field and Cody Bellinger penciled into center, the Yankees didn’t bring in non-roster invitee outfielders who appear even close to starting in the majors full-time.
“Ultimately,” general manager Brian Cashman said, “there’s a lane for (Domínguez) to take, and he’s got the talent to take it.”
And, apparently, the work ethic.
Rojas said he has spent lots of time with the Dominican Republic native and No. 22 overall prospect on the top-100 list from The Athletic’s Keith Law.
Along with coaches Dan Fiorito, Derek Dietrich, Ryan Hunt and Drew Spencer, Rojas and Domínguez have focused on “simulating everything that we can get.”
Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones taking fly balls.
(via @GJoyce9) pic.twitter.com/2BSjwGUBR5
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) February 10, 2025
It’s the kind of practice Domínguez didn’t get much of before the Yankees tried him out in left field, only for him to mostly struggle, late last season.
Domínguez misplayed several balls between left field and center field in September, leading the Yankees to stick with Alex Verdugo’s underperforming bat but steadier glove throughout the playoffs.
Part of the issue was that Domínguez missed so much time in 2024. He started the year on the injured list, rehabbing from the Tommy John surgery he had in October 2023. Then an oblique injury sidelined him from the middle of June until late July. He played just 58 games in the minors, including 44 at Triple A, before the Yankees promoted him to the bigs on Sept. 9.
But the Yankees believe Domínguez is more than capable of learning on the fly. Rojas cited his considerable speed.
“He has all it takes to be a really good left fielder,” the coach said.
Rojas also lauded Domínguez’s mental strength.
“He’s very even-keel,” Rojas said. “Sometimes, you may think he’s quiet if you don’t know him well. But he’s not. He shoots first. He’ll come and say, ‘What do you think about this?’ He’ll ask the question or he’ll voice his opinion about something that he’s probably not agreeing to. He’s not just waiting for directions. He has a feel for what he needs and what he thinks, so we can have really healthy discussions with him.
“That’s why I think he can handle adversity, and he went through it. That’s not easy for a 22-year-old — playing left field for the Yankees when the team is making a playoff push. Coming in and making some of the mistakes he did and not shying off. He put the work in. He was himself every day. I didn’t see anything change. Same kid I met from Day 1 is the same kid I’ve been seeing this spring: showing up really early and working really hard.”
Yankee Stadium is considered to have one of the more difficult left fields in the majors. Though it’s just 318 feet down the foul line, it shoots out 399 feet to left-center field.
It’s a lot of ground to cover. Rojas said the two most difficult plays are when balls are hit toward left-center but begin to tail back toward left field and when balls hover near the line and slice back into fair play.
Domínguez just needs one thing before he’s ready.
“For me,” Rojas said, “the main thing is to see him in games. You cannot simulate the experience in games. Just game situations, runners on bases — all factors that go into the game. Just recording outs as a left fielder. We can simulate anything out there and prep him, but I think he’s going to get better as he plays more games out there.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing a real quality player on both sides of the ball, and we think he can help us,” Cashman said. “And he’s got an opportunity to prove that he can help us.”
(Photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
