Winning the World Series has a way of making offseason dilemmas feel much less taxing. The New York Yankees do not have that luxury after falling in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They face significant pressure to navigate a plethora of obstacles, with the most obvious one being the free agency status of Juan Soto. Fans will be interested to know that at least one piece of business is seemingly being addressed right away.
Top prospect Jasson Dominguez, who has played just 26 MLB games due to injury and lack of opportunity, is being tapped as a key component of the Yankees’ future. Immediate future, that is.
“I fully expect him to be a big part of what we do this coming year,” manager Aaron Boone said, per The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner. He is also expressing confidence in another young player who could be set for a boost in 2025– minor league infielder and potential Gleyber Torres replacement Caleb Durbin.
“I think he’s a stud,” Boone said of the 2021 14th-round draft pick via SNY. “He’ll play a big role for us this upcoming season.”
Prioritizing Dominguez was always the most logical plan, given the potential he flashed at the end of the 2023 season, but there was still some uncertainty surrounding the outfielder’s positioning within the organization.
Alex Verdugo was a Gold Glove finalist, and Spencer Jones is a coveted commodity who is expected to arrive at the MLB level in 2025, so there was a chance that Dominguez remained the odd man out. That can still happen, but Boone’s vote of confidence suggests that the 21-year-old has Yankees brass in his corner. Consequently, Verdugo might be looking for work elsewhere.
An outfield consisting of superstars Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and a promising talent in Dominguez could be a tantalizing long-term set-up from an offensive standpoint. This is merely a hypothetical scenario unless Soto re-signs and Dominguez validates the scouting reports, but it is a vision that many fans ardently desire.
When New York was on its way to a disappointing 82-50 campaign in 2023, which marked the first and currently only time the club has missed the playoffs since Boone became skipper in 2018, one of the main reasons to stay invested was the player known simply as ‘The Martian.” Dominguez blasted four home runs and batted .258 in eight games for the Yanks, foretelling an auspicious and perhaps even seamless transition to The Bronx. The baseball gods had no interest in accelerating such a prophecy, however.
Leave a Reply