There’s no need to rush Jasson Domínguez

Ever since Jasson Domínguez required season-ending Tommy John surgery last September that cut short his MLB debut after just eight games, Yankees fans have been dreaming of the Martian’s return to the outfield in the Bronx. Once he began playing rehab games in May, they began to count down the days until they got to see him, Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto share an outfield — and a middle of the order. An oblique injury in June tabled that dream for over a month.

Now, Domínguez is once again healthy, and fans have begun to call for his return to the lineup to replace Alex Verdugo, who has statistically been one of the league’s worst regular outfielders this season (his 0.7 fWAR ranks 42nd among 51 qualifying outfielders).

Speaking to reporters over the weekend, however, Yankees GM Brian Cashman splashed some cold water on those dreams, saying that “There’s currently no lane for us to bring him.”

Needless to say, Yankees social media has been in an uproar over these comments. Some speculate that service time manipulation is the primary motivating factor, since waiting until September 1st will ensure Domínguez retains rookie eligibility for 2025.

I can understand why fans may be hesitant to trust the general manager, who has a reputation for playing washed-up veterans over prospects hitting well in the minor leagues: after all, we watched the Yankees trot out Brian Roberts and Stephen Drew at second base a decade ago, Jake Bauers and Willie Calhoun in the outfield last season. But, at least in this situation with Domínguez, Cashman is handling things about as well as possible.

The Martian’s minor league stats this year are impressive: he’s slashing .284/.343/.463 with six home runs across 35 games, and it’s on the basis of these stats (combined with his strong performance last September) that one can advocate for his promotion. Looking at his pre/post oblique injury splits, however, tells a different story. Prior to the injury, Domínguez was slashing an insane .356/.404/.609, with ten extra-base hits — including all six homers on the year.

Since Domínguez’s return on July 26th, he’s posting just a .149/.231/.192 slash line, and he has just two extra-base hits in that span (7-for-47) while striking out 15 times. Although he is healthy, the Martian simply has not found his stroke yet. Bringing him up before he figures things out might well end up being counterproductive — especially since he only has 30 games at the Triple-A level in his career.

What is allowing the Yankees to let Domínguez come along slowly and find his stroke at his own pace is the fact that after two months of being a liability at the plate, Verdugo has been on a hot streak lately. In 14 games since the Yankees’ last trip to Fenway, he has slashed .305/.368/.407, good for a 121 wRC+ in that span. That is more than acceptable, and a contributing factor to the Yankees’ offense coming to life in recent weeks (last night’s madness notwithstanding).

The timing of Domínguez’s cold stretch and Verdugo’s return to acceptable form has an added benefit as well: it gives the Yankees time to figure out their outfield arrangement when the Martian returns. The Yankees have primarily run out an outfield of Verdugo/Judge/Soto. Domínguez, however, has spent the vast majority of his time in the minors in center field (249 games, compared to 48 in left and just one in right), while Judge has played just 12 games in left field. Since the team appears to prefer to keep Soto in right field, where he has less ground to cover, the Yankees will have to choose whether to put Judge or Domínguez out of position. Additional time in Triple-A will allow the Martian to get additional reps in the outfield corners, particularly in left, which would make configuring the outfield easier when/if he takes Verdugo’s spot in the outfield.

At the end of the day, I want to see Jasson Domínguez in pinstripes, and I can’t wait to see him, Judge, and (hopefully) Soto hit together in the middle of the Yankees lineup for the next decade. That is the future, however, and for at least the next few weeks, it’s fine to be patient.