By Steve Adams | at
Since a blistering start to the season, highlighted by a 21-7 showing in May, the Yankees have played at a sub-.500 pace, recording a 40-41 record dating back to the beginning of June. They’re 1-3 since the calendar flipped to September and have dropped seven of their past 11 games. A lineup anchored by Aaron Judge and Juan Soto has remained among the more productive units in the game, but the Yankees’ other outfield spot has been a weak point in the lineup for much of the season. Top prospect Jasson Dominguez is healthy and awaiting a big league opportunity as he rips through Triple-A pitching, but the Yankees have thus far stuck with struggling veteran Alex Verdugo — much to the chagrin of the fan base.
General manager Brian Cashman addressed the subject today, telling reporters that if Dominguez were to be called up to the majors, he’d need regular at-bats the team does not currently believe to be available (link via the New York Post’s Greg Joyce). Cashman suggested that Dominguez is “doing everything he needs to” in Triple-A at the moment but also pointed to recent improvement in Verdugo’s results.
“The evaluations that we’re having with our field staff and player development staff, front office staff, is just what is going to give us the best chance to win,” said Cashman. “As of right now, we’re staying pat with what we’ve got.”
It’s a frankly vexing stance for the GM to take, given the rate at which Verdugo has produced (or rather failed to do so) for the bulk of the season. Coming over in an offseason trade with the archrival Red Sox, Verdugo got out to a nice start in his Yankees tenure, hitting .267/.358/.446 through the end of April. Had he continued at or close to that pace, it’d be understandable and plenty defensible to say that the veteran Verdugo can’t simply be pushed aside. That hasn’t been the case. Dating back to May 1, Verdugo has posted an anemic .227/.276/.337 batting line. That’s 28% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+ (72).
For much of that time, the Yankees didn’t have the luxury of even making a tough decision. Dominguez spent the early portion of the season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery performed last September. He was able to begin a rehab assignment in May and was optioned in June when that rehab window ended. At that point, Verdugo’s struggles hadn’t persisted much longer than a month. Judge and Soto were healthy and producing. There wasn’t a clear-cut path to an everyday role. Dominguez wound up suffering a fairly severe oblique strain in Triple-A — one that cost him more than six weeks of action.
Dominguez returned to action in late July, and since then has received all of one game in the big leagues — a quick look as the 27th man in this year’s Little League Classic, after which he was returned to Triple-A. Calls for the Yankees to swap out the veteran Verdugo have since mounted, and Dominguez’s torrid play with the Yankees’ top affiliate isn’t going to quell them anytime soon.
In 41 Triple-A games this season, Dominguez is sporting a hefty .313/.371/.497 batting line — 25% better than average in the Triple-A International League. After striking out in about a quarter of his minor league plate appearances last year, he’s cut that rate to 18.5% in Triple-A this season. Dominguez has been on a particularly potent heater over his past 20 games, slashing .375/.438/.613 with five home runs. Verdugo has turned in a .225/.260/.296 slash in that same time.
There’s no real service time gamesmanship at play here. Dominguez wouldn’t reach a full year of service time in 2024 even if he were called to the majors today. He’d also retain his rookie eligibility into the 2025 season as long as he spent fewer than 34 days on the active roster and accumulated fewer than 95 at-bats between now and the end of the regular season. However, as J.J. Cooper and Matt Eddy of Baseball America highlighted recently, Dominguez wouldn’t even be eligible to net the Yankees a draft pick under the CBA’s prospect promotion incentives, as one of the requirements for the PPI eligibility is having fewer than 60 days of MLB service. Dominguez already surpassed that total while on the major league injured list due to the aforementioned Tommy John surgery.
The Post’s Jon Heyman reported last night that there was a “spirited” debate among Yankees decision-makers on whether to call Dominguez to the majors this month and swap him into the lineup for Verdugo. The decision to keep Dominguez in the minors is hardly unanimous among the team’s decision-makers, per the report, with several Yankees execs strongly advocating for Dominguez’s promotion. However, both Cashman and manager Aaron Boonehave faith in Verdugo’s abilities, Heyman writes.
On the one hand, the Yankees are a lock to reach the postseason whether they’re playing Verdugo or Dominguez every day. At 80-60, they’re tied with the Guardians for the fifth-best record in MLB. On the other, New York’s recent slide has also dropped them a half-game behind the Orioles for the division lead.
It’s debatable whether Dominguez would’ve shifted the Yankees’ fortune in any of their recent losses — he alone isn’t likely to have flipped the script in a four-run loss to Texas or a seven-run loss to St. Louis, for instance — but there’s no denying that the potential difference between Dominguez and Verdugo over the final three-plus weeks could prove pivotal in closing that half-game gap in the standings. That could be the difference between a Wild Card berth or a division-winning, first-round bye for the Yankees.
