CLEARWATER, Fla. — About three and a half years after the Yankees signed Jasson Dominguez for $5.1 million, they now are getting their best look yet at the man dubbed “The Martian.”
In his first real opportunity, the 20-year-old switch-hitter offered a glimpse of why the Yankees are so excited about him when he crushed a home run in his Grapefruit League debut on Saturday at BayCare Ballpark.
Facing Phillies left-hander Ben Bowden in his second at-bat, Dominguez got a first-pitch slider and put an easy swing on it, drilling it 420 feet to left-center field for a solo homer.
“Obviously it felt good,” a smiling Dominguez, who started in center field, said through an interpreter. “Just like the Futures Game. It felt the same.”
Dominguez was referencing the Futures Game at Dodger Stadium last summer, in which he also blasted a home run to deliver with the spotlight on him.
The stage Saturday was not quite as big, but it was Dominguez’s first chance to make an impression in an exhibition game during his first major league camp.
“It’s been really good,” he said as the Yankees lost to the Phillies, 7-4. “A learning experience, really, and a lot of fun.”
Manager Aaron Boone was also encouraged by Dominguez’s other two at-bats on Saturday, in which he ripped a 102.7 mph ground ball to first base and then flew out to left.
“He’s talented,” Boone said. “Just good, quality at-bats. You could tell the guy has a real understanding and an ease of the strike zone. There’s no panic up there. It was good to see him really get into one.”
After signing out of the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2019, Dominguez was robbed of the minor league season in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The hyped prospect finally got his feet wet in pro ball in 2021, then made up for lost time in 2022.
As Dominguez played across three different levels of the minor leagues last year — finishing with a cameo at Double-A Somerset — he continued his development and made strides in important areas beyond the most visible stats, such as his combined .273 batting average and .837 OPS.
“I think the really exciting things, when you start to dive into his quality of contact, his chase percentages, walk and strikeout rates, all those kind of things, he got better as he went up and as the competition got better,” Boone said. “So that was something from last year that was really encouraging for him. Obviously getting a full, normal year in where you get a nice volume of at-bats, that’s that experience that starts to become so valuable as you move up. I think even more than the raw numbers, the underlying things that we saw from him as he went level to level were really encouraging.”
Once he is done soaking up major league camp this spring, Dominguez is a candidate to start the season at Double-A and play a full season there. But suddenly, his arrival in The Bronx doesn’t seem as far off as it once did.
Dominguez, though, insisted he has not considered the possibility of making it there as early as this season.
“Things like that, I don’t have any control over,” he said. “To me, it’s just a laser-focus mentality on the task in front of me on a daily basis.”
As for where he fits in the outfield, Boone said the Yankees believe Dominguez has the tools to stick long-term in center field, where Harrison Bader — set to become a free agent after this season — currently resides.
“It always depends, once he’s ready to be a big leaguer or on this team, then obviously who your personnel is currently, falls into that,” Boone said. “But we see him as a center fielder, yes. Whether that means at some point he’s able to play the corner because a Harrison Bader’s here and things like that, that’s something. But we absolutely feel like his skill set suggests he’s a center fielder.”
