The New York Yankees have made their thoughts on Jasson Dominguez very obvious.
Midway through the offseason, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman essentially confirmed that Jasson Dominguez would be starting the 2026 MLB campaign in Triple-A. He even went as far to say that he considered sending Dominguez down last year, but elected to keep him on the roster in a bench role.
Well, not surprisingly, Dominguez did begin 2026 in the minor leagues, and he has certainly been impressive, slashing .354/.475/.521 with two home runs and eight RBI over 59 plate appearances.
Why, then, are the Yankees continuing their current charade with Randal Grichuk, who has gone hitless with six strikeouts across 12 trips to the dish rather than promoting Dominguez back to the big leagues?
The answer is simple: New York simply does not trust Dominguez defensively, and it doesn't feel comfortable enough giving him an everyday role.
When the Yankees retained Trent Grisham on a $22 million qualifying offer, they made it abundantly clear that they weren't prioritizing Dominguez. At least not this season. And honestly, you can't really blame them.
Dominguez was a nightmare in left field last season, and the same problems have persisted for the 23-year-old at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre thus far this year.
He still takes odd routes to balls, he doesn't know how to play the warning track and his judgment on line drives — and sometimes even routine fly balls — leaves a whole lot to be desired.
New York Yankees outfielder Jasson Dominguez. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images.Yes, his bat clearly has potential. We saw flashes of that in 2025, even if Dominguez only ended up slashing .257/.331/.388, with the bulk of his real damage coming over the first two or three months of the campaign.
But the reason why New York currently has Dominguez in the minors is because it does not want him costing the team games in the outfield.
Sure, Dominguez's futility against right-handed pitching has long been a problem, as well (although he appears to be improving in that area), but that is far from the central issue. If that were the only drawback, he'd be playing in the majors right now.
It's that the Yanks don't have a position for him, and that's part of the reason why they decided to make the controversial decision to extend a qualifying offer to Grisham — who has been dreadful thus far — in the first place.
Dominguez is in an unfortunate situation. His bat is good enough where he could slot into a big-league team's lineup, but he hasn't proven to be quite good enough offensively yet to mask his defensive deficiencies.
The Yankees also can't DH him, because they would then lose one of their best hitters in Giancarlo Stanton. Plus, once Stanton is gone, Aaron Judge figures to slot into the designated hitter role as he ages.
We'll probably see Dominguez up at some point this season, if for no other reason than the fact that the 34-year-old Grichuk — who was once a decent power hitter and posted an .875 OPS as recently as 2024 — might be completely cooked.
But the Yankees have made their thoughts on Dominguez clear as day.
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