Around the Empire: Yankees news - 6/30/21

MLB.com | Jonathan Mayo: Yankees’ No. 1 prospect Jasson Dominguez has accepted an invitation to play in MLB’s All-Star Futures Game at Coors Field in Denver on July 11th. That means more baseball fans will get a glimpse of the highly-touted 18-year-old prospect and see what all the hype surrounding Dominguez is about. Dominguez will be the first player to participate in the Futures Game without having played a full-season in pro ball and he is also the youngest player to participate since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. played in it back in 2017. The All-Star Futures Game began in 1999 and is hosted by MLB alongside the All-Star Game for big leaguers.

FanGraphs | David Laurila: The advent of innovative technologies like Rapsodo and high-speed cameras has led to a growing interest in pitch design among major league pitchers. Starting pitcher Michael King and lefty reliever Lucas Luetge discuss how they developed their respective sliders and how those pitches evolved into the sharp breaking pitches they throw today. The two Yankees pitchers and the Blue Jays’ Jordan Romano shared their slider stories as part of FanGraphs’ Learning and Developing a Pitch series, a regular feature that had gone on hiatus during the pandemic.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: As part of the organization’s annual HOPE Week, the Yankees welcomed Liz and Vilma Kari to the Stadium on Tuesday evening to recognize AAP (I belong) initiative, the program Kari started to combat anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. The program also serves as a platform for people to share their own stories and experiences of anti-Asian hate. Liz Kari transformed these stories into an art installation, which was on display in the Great Hall of Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

New York Post | Ryan Dunleavy: Despite acknowledging that left fielders Miguel Andújar and Clint Frazier are not contributing on either side of the ball in a substantive way, Brian Cashman reiterated on Tuesday that he isn’t planning to seek out a different solution for the Yankees’ outfield. Cashman explained that even though Frazier, in particular, has been an offensive and defensive disappointment, he [Cashman] does not regard potential replacements already in the organization — namely, Hoy Jun Park, Estevan Florial or Trey Amburgey — to be a definitive upgrade on the Yankees’ current cohort in left field.

In today’s roster update, the Yankees also demoted Albert Abreu to Triple-A Scranton. This was an expected move with Justin Wilson ready to return to the big league roster and likely activated on Wednesday.