The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Keep an eye out on Yankees prospect Dominguez in 2023
Otherworldly, the Martian, the next Mickey Mantle or simply Mike Trout: These are the designations that were broadcast across the baseball world about Jasson Dominguez when he inked a franchise-record international contract with the Yankees.
In 2019, the Bombers signed Dominguez — who was arguably the highesttouted international prospect in MLB history — to a contract with a $5.1 million signing bonus. Talent evaluators across the baseball industry were bullish on the eye-popping tools of the Dominican native with rankings as high as the No. 32 prospect in the game — according to MLB Pipeline — without even stepping foot on a minor-league diamond.
“I don’t really think (the expectations are) fair.” Kevin Reese told reporters in the Spring of 2021. “It’s hard to help him manage those expectations because he’s not going to show up tomorrow and perform like Mike Trout or Aaron Judge.”
The present-day evaluation has fewer whispers of Mantle and Trout, and Dominguez’s Hall of Fame plaque has been put on hold. Entering the 2023 season, MLB Pipeline has the 19-year-old checked in as the No. 47 prospect in baseball.
Despite the luster of a historically anticipated prospect wearing a bit, there are still plenty of reasons to dream on the tools still in possession of the centerfield prospect.
Dominguez played at three-different minor league levels in 2022 — which was his first full minor league season — and seemingly got better as he climbed up the latter. His slash line between Low-A, High-A and Double-A registered at .273/.376/.461 with 16 homers and 59 RBI in 120 games.
Once he reached Double-A Somerset, the outfielder played just five regular season games before setting the world on fire during the postseason. “The Martian” hit .450/ .560/.950 with three homers and 10 RBI in five games including a 3-for-4 performance with homers from both sides of the plate in the championship game all but ensuring his spot at Double-A to begin 2023.
Dominguez was granted the opportunity to put his talents on display for a
national audience as he was named to the MLB Futures Game in 2022 — alongside fellow Yankee farmhand Anthony Volpe, who batted fourth for the American League squad — at All-Star weekend in Los Angeles and gave them something worth watching by blasting a 415foot homer from the right side registering at 107-mph off of the bat.
Despite the flash, there are many elements to his game that still need to be developed including the in-game power, which is something that the Bombers are still waiting to shine through on a more consistent bases. The switch-hitter regularly registers exit velocities over 100 mph even reaching as high as 117 mph in a sim game back in 2021 as an 18-year-old, which leads to high raw-power grades by evaluators.