{"id":133209,"date":"2026-02-14T01:58:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133209\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:58:32","slug":"yankees-concede-jasson-dominguez-should-play-every-day-but-that-might-not-be-in-the-bronx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133209\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees \u2018concede\u2019 Jasson Dom\u00ednguez should play every day, but that might not be in the Bronx"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Once the New York Yankees re-signed Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham this offseason, it muddied Jasson Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s short- and long-term outlook with the club. He was a man without a defined role.<\/p>\n

In the short term, Dom\u00ednguez is slated for a bench job if he breaks camp with the Yankees. It\u2019s a role that doesn\u2019t make sense for the 23-year-old because he\u2019s still developing. He needs to prove he can hit from the right side of the plate, and he needs to show significant improvement in left field. Playing sporadically could stunt Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s growth. But the reality is the Yankees\u2019 starting outfield is set with Bellinger in left field, Grisham in center and Aaron Judge in right. Unless one of those players gets hurt before Opening Day, Dom\u00ednguez is on the bench. He\u2019s not supplanting any of them.<\/p>\n

In the long term, there\u2019s still a pathway for Dom\u00ednguez to become a fixture in the Yankees\u2019 lineup. Grisham will be a free agent after this season. If the Yankees believe Bellinger can handle center field next season, there could be a vacancy in left field. They currently don\u2019t view Dom\u00ednguez as a major-league center fielder, even though it was his primary position in the minor leagues. They could also have an opening at designated hitter in two years. Giancarlo Stanton has a club option in his age-38 season, and the Yankees could decline it if he has declined at that stage of his career.<\/p>\n

But if the aforementioned Yankees are all healthy when the team travels to San Francisco for Opening Day, Dom\u00ednguez may not be on that plane headed west.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would concede it\u2019s in his best interest to be getting everyday reps,\u201d Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Friday. \u201cWe\u2019ll just have to wait and see how the spring shakes out, who\u2019s standing, and then we\u2019ll make the appropriate decisions when we have our meetings close to the end of camp. \u2026 There\u2019s flexibility in the roster with a lot of players that we can do a lot of different things with, whether they\u2019re going north with us or going to Triple A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Dom\u00ednguez make the big-league team out of spring training? It doesn\u2019t help his case that he\u2019s essentially another left-handed bat. If he could be trusted from the right side, the fit could be seamless.<\/p>\n

The Yankees could use a right-handed-hitting outfielder. On days they face a left-handed pitcher, manager Aaron Boone could slide Bellinger to center, bench Grisham (who had an 88 wRC+ versus lefties last season) and play that theoretical righty in left field. But Dom\u00ednguez isn\u2019t that player, which means it\u2019s difficult to find a spot for him.<\/p>\n

Cashman said he\u2019s \u201cnot closing any doors on right-handed bats,\u201d and that the roster could change because \u201cit\u2019s never pencils down until the trade deadline ends.\u201d The Athletic reported<\/a> that the Yankees offered a major-league contract to Austin Slater, a righty-hitting outfielder; Slater has since joined the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees have also expressed interest in Randal Grichuk, who has a 118 career wRC+ against lefties. If they do import a righty outfielder, it becomes nearly impossible to envision any scenario where Dom\u00ednguez isn\u2019t in Triple A to start the season, if everyone is healthy.<\/p>\n

The Yankees could have sent Dom\u00ednguez down to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre last season when he was reduced to coming off the bench, but they chose not to because there \u201cwas a definitive role\u201d for him. With them now changing their stance by acknowledging it would be best for him to play every day, it\u2019s more likely that he will be in Triple A.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everything stays the same, we\u2019ll be forced to determine what\u2019s our best course of action to help this team be impactful,\u201d Cashman said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n New York Yankees outfielder Jasson Dom\u00ednguez, a much-hyped prospect as a teenager, may not have a natural spot in the lineup this season. (Photo by Ishika Samant\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

If Dom\u00ednguez is in Triple A and the Yankees do not acquire another established outfielder, they could use Amed Rosario or Oswaldo Cabrera as a fourth outfielder. Rosario was spotted getting reps with Judge in the outfield on Thursday. Cabrera has previous experience in both left and right field, and his defensive versatility gives him an edge over Dom\u00ednguez.<\/p>\n

Even if the Yankees opt to have Dom\u00ednguez start the season in the minors, it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a career-defining decision. Dom\u00ednguez had a 116 wRC+ against right-handed pitching last season in his age-22 season. His underlying metrics from the left side of the plate are strong and a good foundation for a player with his experience. Questions will, of course, emerge if the end result is another Yankees top prospect not reaching his full potential. But it\u2019s still too early for verdicts.<\/p>\n

If Dom\u00ednguez can show he\u2019s improved defensively and better from the right side of the plate, he can still be a quality major leaguer. He\u2019ll likely never fulfill the hype he had as a teenager after being nicknamed \u201cThe Martian\u201d and likened to Mickey Mantle and Mike Trout, but there\u2019s no reason to give up on him.<\/p>\n

But given how the 2026 Yankees are constructed, it\u2019s obvious there isn\u2019t a lane for Dom\u00ednguez to be an everyday big leaguer.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, we\u2019ll have to make some decisions at the end of camp,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cSometimes, those decisions get made for us when injuries occur. I guess we\u2019ll wait and see how the spring plays out and do what\u2019s best for us when (it\u2019s time) to set the roster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Once the New York Yankees re-signed Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham this offseason, it muddied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,321,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-133209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-the-bronx","14":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","15":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}