Yankees prospect Jasson Domnguez kicks off his 2023 season: The skys the limit for him

At 42 years old, Nick Swisher is still bursting with energy. The former Yankees outfielder turned special adviser zips from drill to drill during spring training. Everyone gets a fist bump. Most of his sentences get punctuated with “bro!” His endless positivity is part of what’s made him beloved among young minor leaguers at the team’s player development complex. But when Swisher talks about top outfield prospect Jasson Domínguez, he ascends to a new level. Imagine a golden retriever after a bowl filled with Red Bull.

Advertisement

“He is ‘The Martian,’ bro!” Swisher said. “To be able to see what he’s doing now, I could not be more happy for him.”

And after Domínguez’s impressive first big-league spring training, Yankees decision-makers couldn’t be more excited to see how he follows it up. It’s been almost four years since they gave him a franchise-record $5.1 million signing bonus out of the Dominican Republic, captivated by his otherworldly blend of speed, power and switch-hitting ability at age 16.

Now Domínguez is 20. His regular season will begin Thursday in center field for Double-A Somerset, batting near the top of the lineup as the Patriots host Nationals affiliate Harrisburg at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, N.J.

“He’s got really, really good tools,” center fielder Harrison Bader said.

“He’s going to be a stud for the New York Yankees here soon,” Swisher said.

“His progress has been really cool to see,” manager Aaron Boone said.

And when Domínguez walks to the plate for the first time, he’ll do it with the possibility — though it may be remote — that he could make it to the majors at some point in 2023.

But Domínguez really started impressing the Yankees well before this spring, well before his .455 batting average, four home runs and 1.566 OPS in 11 games in his first big-league camp had fans on social media begging for him to start in left field in The Bronx over Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Cabrera.

For vice president of baseball operations Tim Naehring, Domínguez’s improvements were most apparent last May. Domínguez had scuffled through an uneven 2021, his first year of professional baseball due to MLB canceling the 2020 minor-league campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic. That season, Domínguez hit just .258 with an uninspiring five homers and a .744 OPS in 50 games at Low A. And then in April 2022, he struggled again, hitting .225.

Advertisement

Then something clicked. Naehring watched it in Tampa.

“In all the years I’ve been around,” Naehring said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young athlete make so many positive strides — on the offensive side, especially. His approach. His swing mechanics. His calmness in the box. It was really exciting how we started seeing the progression, and the numbers show that he made some adjustments that started to work for him.”

The numbers, indeed, showed that Domínguez figured some things out. He posted a .891 OPS through his final 59 games with Tampa before getting promoted to High-A Hudson Valley. And he only got better there, hitting .306 with a .906 OPS in 40 games. That earned him a five-game call-up to Double A to end the season.

It all led to The Athletic’s Keith Law ranking him before the season as the Yankees’ No. 2 overall prospect behind shortstop Anthony Volpe and as No. 32 in the game.

“He’s always had a good idea for where the zone is,” Naehring said. “His ability to work the count and his zone control, if you will. I just think there were mechanical adjustments with where his hands were, where he was firing from, controlling his lower half, controlling the zone. And then showing the ability to hit hard and soft. The biggest thing for me was just how he progressed in a variety of ways. Sometimes young kids get into a certain type of approach where they’re just only pull. He adjusts his sights to different types of pitchers. A lot of adjustability inside the box. Most importantly he has this ability to slow the game down.”

Naehring added that Domínguez still hasn’t played much relative to his age. He’s played just 177 minor-league games over two seasons.

“He’s pushing the floor up every single day,” the executive said. “When you think about him stepping into the box, there’s a trust factor. He’s pushing the floor up, but he’s also probably pushing the ceiling up, as he plays more and more. There’s three aspects of the game: How well he continues to progress in the outfield, how well he continues to progress in the bases, and then obviously the damage he does at the plate. As he gets more reps, I think there are other aspects of the game that probably keep progressing as well.”

Advertisement

Said Swisher, “To see the work that he’s put in from start to finish, man, I’m all about the work and putting it in on an everyday basis. He’s doing that.”

Bader said when camp started, Domínguez asked if he could shadow him in center field.

“I was just getting my work out there,” Bader, a Gold Glover, said. “He came along and wanted to take fly balls with me. I was happy to just give him my perspective and opinion of how I approach it.”

Bader added, “He has tremendous ability on all sides of the baseball. It’s really exciting to have such a young talent come around like that. It doesn’t really happen too often.”

Domínguez’s performance wasn’t the only thing that stood out. In an organization where facial hair is prohibited and individuality often comes second to the pinstripes and interlocking NY logo, Domínguez has been roaming center field with eye-catching gloves tailored to fit his nickname. They come in all colors. One is mint green with a streak of metallic silver with “The Martian” embroiled in white along the thumb and an alien holding a tiny ray gun on the base. Another was midnight blue. Another was green with brown webbing, and there was an avocado sown into it — a nod to Domínguez’s love for the fruit.

“It’s all part of his brand,” infielder Oswaldo Cabrera said. “The colors of ‘The Martian,’ and all those things. If the Yankees let him play with that glove, it’s part of his personality.”

Domínguez said he was actually reluctant at first to use the gloves, but not because they stood out. It was because he didn’t want to get them dirty. Soon after he signed with the Yankees, equipment manufacturing company Marucci Sports sent him the glove with the alien on it. He didn’t even want to put it on. He just looked at it.

“For me,” he said, “it was so amazing. I just wanted to leave it at home.”

So, it sat at his home in the Dominican Republic until last season, when he broke it out at Low A, raced through High A and finished at Double A, putting himself in position for a potential Bronx audition this year.

Advertisement

“For all of us,” Swisher said, “the sky’s the limit for him.”

The sky might be aiming too low. How about Mars?

(Top photo: Thomas A. Ferrara / Newsday RM via Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k2xvbW9kZnxzfJFsZmlsX2WDcMXAp6KenaNit6K%2F0qilZpyforavs9SesWg%3D