Poll: What to do with Jasson Domínguez

Between now and next Monday, the Yankees have a decision to make with Jasson Domínguez. Today is Day 15 of El Marciano’s 20-day rehab assignment, so, come Monday, he has to come off the injured list. At that point the Yankees can either carry him on their MLB roster or option him to the minors. There is a deadline though. Domínguez must be activated no later than Monday.

“Hopefully it is a tough decision at that point, because good things are happening here,” Aaron Boone told Joe Trezza about Domínguez’s return earlier this month. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

The writing is on the wall. Domínguez is in the final stages of his throwing program and he has not yet played the outfield during his rehab assignment. He has DHed only. Given that, it’s a near certainty the Yankees will send Domínguez to the minors on Monday. Hard to think they will bring him to the big leagues to essentially complete the outfield portion of his rehab on the fly.

And you know what? That’s fine. The big league outfield – Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo – has been great, and those guys play every single day. Trent Grisham has started only 13 times in 55 games and four of those starts came when Verdugo was on the paternity list. The Yankees don’t need an outfield upgrade or an offensive boost. They can be patient with Domínguez.

That said, Domínguez is the Yankees’ top prospect, and they believe he’s MLB ready. They wouldn’t have called up him last September otherwise. El Marciano went 8-for-31 (.258) with four home runs in eight big league games before blowing out his elbow. Anyone can have eight good games, but Domínguez is really talented, and if he can help, you’d like the Yankees to find a way to make it happen.

Domínguez is 11-for-35 (.314) with a double, a homer, five walks, and 10 strikeouts through nine rehab games. The way I see it, the Yankees have four options with him when activation day arrives. The lack of outfield play strongly suggests he’s going to the minors for a bit, but let’s pretend we don’t know that. Let’s discuss what the Yankees can do with Domínguez.

Send him to the minors and keep him there

Domínguez’s eight-game big league cameo last season was so loud that it’s easy to forget a) he’s only 21, and b) he played only nine games in Triple-A. He has 70 career plate appearances above Double-A. It’s not unreasonable to think Domínguez could use more minor league seasoning, especially coming off a major surgery. The Yankees have the luxury of sending him to the minors to play everyday. The current big league outfield is more than capable.

Keep in mind the return from Tommy John surgery isn’t always smooth. Shohei Ohtani is having an incredible season following his elbow surgery, though he is a unicorn and the exception, not the rule. Didi Gregorius hit .238/.276/.441 (84 wRC+) in over 300 plate appearances after returning from his Tommy John surgery in 2019. Bryce Harper hit three home runs in his first 58 games after returning from Tommy John surgery last year. And that's Bryce Harper! It’s a major surgery and not everyone hits the ground running when they make it back.

So, this option is sending Domínguez down with the intention of keeping him down the rest of the season, more or less. If he’s needed to cover for an injury or if the Yankees want to give him a September call up, cool, but this plan entails sending him down with no set timetable for when he’ll return to the Bronx. There is more development to be done before Domínguez is ready to be a full-time big leaguer, so let him develop. The Yankees don’t need to have a “this is when he comes back” date already mapped out.

Send him to the minors for a bit, then call him up

An extended rehab assignment, basically. Send Domínguez to the minors to get more at-bats and to get reacclimated to the outfield, then call him up and work him into the outfield mix. Maybe the target is mid-to-late June for Domínguez’s return to the Yankees. Maybe it’s July or August. Whenever it is, this plan involves sending him down with the idea that he’ll come back up and contribute later this season.

It should be noted there are service time considerations here. Domínguez entered 2024 with 31 days of service time, so he’ll need to spend 51 days in the minors on an optional assignment (i.e. not a rehab assignment) to push his free agency back a year. Activate and option him Monday, and Domínguez would have to stay in the minors until July 24th for the Yankees to steal back a year of control.

There are also Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick considerations. Those are extra draft picks awarded to teams whose prospects spend their entire rookie-eligible season on the big league roster, and meet certain prospect ranking and awards voting criteria. Ironically, the PPI program was created to disincentivize service time manipulation, yet here we are talking about manipulating Domínguez’s service time so he’ll remain PPI eligible in 2025. Dumb sport sometimes.

To be eligible for a PPI pick, Domínguez must retain his rookie-eligibility heading into 2025 and spend the entire 2025 season on the MLB roster. The rookie service time limit is 45 days on the active roster and Domínguez is at 31 days. That means he can spend 14 days at most on the active big league roster this season. Anything more than that and Dominguez loses rookie-eligibility for 2024 and thus reduces his chances of bringing back a PPI pick.

(Activating Domínguez and keeping him on the MLB roster the rest of the season would still make him PPI eligible. In that case he would have to finish in the top three of the MVP voting in 2025 or 2026 to bring back the extra pick because he's not winning Rookie of the Year this year. Delay PPI eligibility to next year and Domínguez could bring back a pick by winning Rookie of the Year in 2025, or finishing top three in the MVP voting at any point from 2025-27. Delaying it until next year equals more opportunities to actually get that PPI pick.)

Keeping Dominguez down juuust long enough to delay his free agency is a thing that could happen. The Yankees are not above service time manipulation. Keeping him down long enough to delay PPI eligibility would essentially fall into the last category (send him down and keep him down) because he’d have to stay down most of the rest of the season. It sucks, but we can’t pretend service time considerations don’t exist.

To get back to the original point, the Yankees could send Domínguez to the minors on what amounts to an extended rehab assignment. Get him however many more at-bats and however many more innings in the outfield, then once he’s up to speed, bring him up and put him in the lineup. This calls for sending Domínguez down with his return to the Yankees mapped out ahead of time (with the appropriate wiggle room, obviously).

Activate him and put him in the MLB lineup

The all-in plan. Come Monday, the Yankees can activate Domínguez and put him directly into their everyday lineup. They can make it work. For example: Verdugo has an 85 wRC+ against lefties and history suggests Giancarlo Stanton won’t maintain his 135 wRC+ against righties. Based on that, there are at-bats available against lefties and righties. For example:

vs. RHP
1. SS Anthony Volpe
2. DH Juan Soto
3. RF Aaron Judge
4. LF Alex Verdugo
5. CF Jasson Domínguez
6. 1B Anthony Rizzo
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. 2B Gleyber Torres
9. C Austin Wells

vs. LHP
1. SS Anthony Volpe
2. RF Juan Soto
3. LF Aaron Judge (he played left earlier this year, remember)
4. DH Giancarlo Stanton
5. CF Jasson Domínguez
6. 1B Anthony Rizzo
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. 2B Gleyber Torres
9. C Jose Trevino

Maybe Domínguez bats lower in the order initially. Whatever. Point is, Verdugo hasn’t hit lefties this season or throughout his career, and the last few years tell us Stanton is performing a bit over his head against righties at the moment. That creates an opening for Domínguez, who showed his power is big league ready last season. He would also improve the defense by opening the DH spot for Soto against righties (i.e. most pitchers).

Keep in mind this isn’t only about Domínguez. Judge is doing an awful lot of running around in center field – it’s not just the ground he has to cover, it’s backing up on every single ball hit to the corners – and he’s doing it at age 32 and with a toe injury he readily admits will require “constant maintenance.” Domínguez can help lighten the center field load on Judge and keep him fresh later into the season. Better than Grisham can, anyway.

The offense and consistent lineup has been a strength this year, and I understand not wanting to fix things that aren’t broken. At the same time, there’s nothing wrong with improving a strength. If the Yankees can make their lineup better, they should do it, and Domínguez could make the lineup better given his talent and what he showed last year. This option is going all-in on El Marciano’s upside and playing him right away.

(If you want to get really crazy, the Yankees could trade Verdugo to the suddenly Ronald Acuña-less Braves and clear an outfield spot for Domínguez that way. Can't rule it out! But nah.)

Activate him and use him as a part-time MLB player

I would say this is the least desirable option, but it is an option. The Yankees could carry Domínguez on the big league roster as a part-time player. As the fourth outfielder, basically. He wouldn’t play much, but young players can still learn a lot just by being around big leaguers, sitting in on meetings, etc. The Yankees could find him 2-3 starts a week, but, for the most part, they’d stick with their regular outfield and let Domínguez tag along for the ride (like Grisham is now). The best 26 players should be on the roster, right?

* * *

Like I said in the intro, it is a near certainty the Yankees will activate Domínguez on Monday and option him to the minors. When we see him after that, I do not know. It’ll depend on how everyone is performing, the roster needs, and all sorts of other unpredictable stuff. It’s great that the big league outfield and the offense have been so good that we’re not sitting here talking about Domínguez possibly being a savior, you know?

The Yankees are likely to option Domínguez to the minors on Monday. That’s what they will do. What should they do? That’s what we’re here to vote on. What do you think the Yankees should do – again, not what they will do, what they should do – with Domínguez when his rehab window ends Monday and he has to come off the injured list?