Jasson Domínguez homers in first career at-bat

Plenty of hype has surrounded the Yankees’ youth movement late in 2023, but the most anticipated of all was the promotion of much-ballyhooed prospect Jasson Domínguez after only nine games at Triple-A. It was an aggressive move, but with the season lost, New York decided that the best way to challenge him and plan for 2024 would be to bump the 20-year-old up to The Show.

Domínguez got the start in center field tonight, and in his MLB debut, he was tasked with facing an all-time great in Justin Verlander. Although DJ LeMahieu broke the ice with a leadoff homer, the inning could very well have been over. He was on deck with two outs and Giancarlo Stanton took a 3-2 slider that easily could have been a called third strike. Instead, Stanton walked to first base, giving the mega-prospect a chance to take some swings against the Astros’ future Hall of Famer.

After taking a called first strike on a Verlander curveball, The Martian took his first hack in the big leagues. And he made it count:

The ball left Domínguez’s bat at 100.2 mph and traveled 360 feet. It would only have gone out of three other parks (Yankee Stadium not being one of them), but both teams are playing in the same stadium and the Crawford Boxes are always inviting.

What an amazing debut for Domínguez, whose parents are in attendance in Houston to see their son. The Yankees signed him for $5.1 million as a 16-year-old and he has made his debut earlier than I think anyone expected. He tore the hide off the ball in spring training this year and now has his first MLB dinger, off a name that will live in Cooperstown, and against a team that has absolutely tortured the Yankees for the better part of the last decade. Per YES Network’s Jack Curry, Domínguez is getting the ball back, too.

With that swing, Domínguez joined captain Aaron Judge as one of just six Yankees to homer in his first career at-bat:

Domínguez is also the sixth-youngest player in modern baseball history to homer in his first career at-bat. Further, only four other Yankees have gone deep under any circumstance at his age or younger. You might have heard of two them, as their last names are Gehrig and Mantle.

Welcome to The Show, Jasson. Hopefully that’s the first of hundreds of bombs you’ll launch in pinstripes.