Yankees manager Aaron Boone appeared on WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata this afternoon. He fielded a few questions about the team’s position player mix.
Boone indicated that his starting outfield was likely to comprise Jasson Domínguez in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, and Aaron Judge in right. Trent Grisham is ticketed for a fourth outfield role. The eighth-year skipper suggested he hoped to keep Domínguez mostly in left field while using Bellinger a bit more flexibly. He noted that there’ll be days when Judge serves as a designated hitter while Giancarlo Stanton gets a day off. In those instances, Grisham would likely draw into center field with Bellinger kicking over to right.
The most notable aspect is that the Yankees are preparing for Domínguez to get everyday run. Owner Hal Steinbrenner made similar comments in an interview with Meredith Marakovitz of the YES Network this afternoon. “I see him as the starting left fielder,” Steinbrenner replied when asked about Domínguez’s role. “There’ll be a lot of meetings and discussions in Spring Training obviously and we’ll see how he performs and how he feels, but everybody’s very excited about him.”
Domínguez, who turns 22 next month, should be ticketed for his first extended big league audition. He drilled four homers in eight games as a 20-year-old back in 2023. An elbow injury then ended his season and required Tommy John surgery that shelved him into the middle of June. New York seemed reluctant to give Domínguez regular run fresh off the injury. He bounced on and off the active roster for the final six weeks of the season, though the Yanks stuck with Alex Verdugo as their everyday player in left field. Domínguez got into 18 games and struggled to a .179/.313/.304 slash.
The switch-hitting outfielder remains one of the game’s top young talents. Baseball America ranked Domínguez as New York’s top prospect and among the sport’s 30 best prospects on their updated Top 100 list. He has been a strong performer in the minors. Domínguez has a .253/.360/.430 line across parts of three Double-A seasons and carries a huge .325/.391/.495 mark in 230 plate appearances with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Boone added that with the current roster makeup, he views Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the starter at second base. He named DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza as players who could battle for playing time at third base. New York has been linked to free agents Jorge Polanco and Brendan Rodgers, so there’s still a chance for an acquisition to push Chisholm back to the hot corner.
Chisholm has only started two games at second base since 2022. He played there regularly with the Marlins early in his career before moving to center field. Miami brought him back into the infield shortly before last summer’s deadline in a thinly veiled effort to expand his versatility to trade partners.
The Yankees acquired him and installed him at third base in deference to Gleyber Torres. Chisholm played his first 400 career innings at the hot corner in the Bronx. Statcast graded him highly in that sample, though Defensive Runs Saved had him slightly below average. Both metrics have given Chisholm plus grades for his second base work. He has a little more than 1300 career innings at the position, most of which came between 2021-22.
Solid OF. Much better than ’24 when both Judge and Verdugo were out of position, and Soto was trying his best in right
Verdugo wasnt out of position he played just as much left as right.
I read it as.. Judge is a RF, Soto is a DH and Verdugo is on the wrong roster.
Soto did his best in RF that’s for sure
I think they should put Dominguez in center. It’s his natural position and he’s good there.
D99: There were plenty of whispers about his routes from him time in the minors. I like the idea of plugging him in and letting him play. For all the hate he gets Grisham is a positive WAR player and a pimp in Cf. Assuming he hits there’s always next year for Dominguez in Cf. Long term with his build I don’t know how many years his speed will hold up to even be viable out there.
I agree that could be an issue longer term, but I’m simply looking for what will be the strongest defensive OF unit in 2025. That aside, the Yankees over the past 15 years have preferred strong defenders in LF, hence why they played a plus defensive CFer in Brett Gardner in LF, and put Verdugo there last year. That is probably a good sign that they believe Dominguez can adapt to be a good defender in LF. I’m thinking ahead one year. If the Cubs don’t sign Tucker, I expect the Yankees to go in big, and he’ll be the Yankees LFer.
From your lips to God’s ears on Tucker. And agreed Lf at YS is almost like center. We shed 16 million of dead money next year (Hicks & Rizzo) hopefully it’s well spent…
Extra, extra!! The Martians are here, and invaded Yankee Stadiums’ left field!!
I’m interested in seeing what the kid can do.
We’re just over 3 weeks from Spring games!
I don’t understand this. If he is the future CF for the NYY, why not play him there now and let him grow in the position, instead of switching positions and then trying to switch back?
Perhaps they’re not intending on him being their CF of the future…
Yankee LF is larger than most, and a converted cf usually finds their way over there (See Gardner, Hicks). He grades out to average or slightly below average CF so he may do well in Left. Just needs reps.
Spencer Jones is the future CF
Could they have an issue with the arm, at least in the first year?
Yeah, that’s a great point, Joe.
The Tommy John surgery was on his non-throwing arm
Strike that, must have been someone else I was thinking of.
Time to see if Dominguez is the real deal
Will be interesting seeing if he can develop n become big bat in lineup. One caveat, he is a product of the Yankee prospect over-hype machine by association.
Dominguez had basically a phenomenal half a season at AAA (including those 8 pre-injury MLB games). He needs time to develop and hopefully will but what scared me last year wasn’t the bat. He looked lost in the OF. Having said that, Sox fans saw what Duran did on both sides of the ball so let’s see Jasson do it before the nicknames he’s yet to earn.
Spencer Jones has a better glove in center field than Dominguez. If Jones can get his strikeout percentage down this year in AAA then he will be the CF of the future. Bellinger will be the 1b next year in that scenario. If Jones develops as expected this year, the OF in Yankee Stadium looks stacked for years to come. I watched a video just today of Jones and his new swing compared to Judge and they are almost identical. It’s something the coaches having been tweaking with him and apparently he’s making much harder contact with the ball if that’s imaginable! He was consistently hitting balls 112 mph off the bat! Some even harder! Time will tell.
Youth and vigor! Give it a shot.
I’ll take youth & vigor over mere aura & mystique any day!
Jasson Dominguez is a pure scrub and won’t hit more than .230
I’ll be drafting him. Low perhaps, but he’s on my list.
Oh hell yes. He’s definitely draftable. With the Yanks saying he’s the starting left fielder now he’s going climb up the ranks though, definitely look out for that. Plenty of folks reach early.
Yankees still need another OF bat, moreso than IF I think. Sure, Stanton could fill in or Jazz obviously has played plenty of Center, but I’m not confident with Grisham as the 4th. The dude has not panned out enough at the plate to play his defense and speed more than necessary.
But I do think it’s time to give the keys to Jasson. Whether he’s it or not shall be seen, but willing to start the season with him as the starter. There’s always the trade deadline to fix things.
Either way, the roster needs an extra bat, though after both Boone and Hal did media yesterday, I’m less inclined to think they’re doing something big. I could be wrong, I hope I am, but I’ve already stated elsewhere we’re sorta equipped for the season should we need to be, position player wise. Which is what they reiterated yesterday, ho hum. Definitely need lefty relievers still!
Grisham is a gold glove caliber player. He’s a good piece to have. He’d be a starter on a lot of mlb clubs. If someone gets hurt, he’s very good depth.
He’s definitely good to have, but 5th on the rung. He just doesn’t hit enough–heck at all–but he’s a great late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner, otherwise I’d limit his pt.
Who would you put above him to make him 5th? He hits a home run every 20 abs and plays gold glove defense. If he starts 1/4 of the games he’ll be fine.
The dude hit .190 last year. Even with his defense and speed he would not be a starter anywhere. I’d rotate Jazz back into the OF before him for sure, but like I said originally this why I’d be out to get another OF piece. Maybe even an IF/OF piece like Mark Cahna who can play all three positions plus 1st/3rd and hits a bit more.
You’re not gonna find a 4th outfielder with much better than a .675 ops. He’ll bat around 200 and occasionally run into one. Thats not a 5 million dollar player but it’s not nothing either.
Padres need to target Spencer Jones, he can slot in at LF immediately in Petco Park. He’s from San Diego too. How about Robert Suarez for Spencer Jones…?
Can we just stop with Grisham? He is overrated as an CFer and is worthless as a hitter. Brings nothing to the table, not even fast!