BRADENTON, Fla. — The talent has never been in question. Even now, after a full big league season of mixed results, nobody inside the Yankees organization doubts what Jasson Dominguez can eventually become. The problem is the gap between what he is right now and what the roster needs him to be.
Dominguez is a switch-hitter in name. From the left side, he looked like a legitimate everyday player in 2025, batting .274 with a .768 OPS in 325 plate appearances against right-handed pitching. From the right side, the story collapsed. He hit just .204 with a .569 OPS in 104 plate appearances against lefties. The disparity was so severe that it effectively turned him into a platoon bat for a team that could not afford to carry one during a tight postseason race.
That is the reality Dominguez brought into spring training. And this week, he began the work of changing it.
Boone calls right-side struggles an ‘experience-level thing’
Dominguez got his first two at-bats against a left-hander on Monday during the Yankees’ 6-2 win over the Pirates at LECOM Park. He struck out in both, the first against tough reliever Gregory Soto. Earlier in the game, batting from the left side, he roped an RBI double against a right-hander.
The contrast illustrated the exact challenge the Yankees are trying to solve. Dominguez looks like a different hitter depending on which side of the plate he is standing on. And getting him enough right-handed reps in February and March is harder than it sounds.
“I think it’s mostly an experience-level thing where, a young man that’s missed a fair amount of time in his development coming up through the system, the biggest thing that suffers from that is the right side because you don’t face a lot of lefties,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So I’m hoping it is something that continues to improve over time as he gets more opportunities. But it can be challenging, too.”
Boone pointed to the development time Dominguez lost as a factor. The 23-year-old missed nearly all of the 2024 season with a torn UCL in his right elbow, which required surgery. That wiped out hundreds of at-bats against live pitching during a critical period of his growth. Because left-handed pitchers make up a smaller share of minor league staffs, the right-handed reps were the ones that disappeared first.
A blocked outfield and lefty-heavy lineup make the path even narrower
The switch-hitting challenge does not exist in a vacuum. Dominguez faces a roster crunch that makes every spring at-bat count more than usual. The Yankees’ outfield is set with Aaron Judge in right, Cody Bellinger in center and Trent Grisham in left. All three played at least 140 games in 2025. All three are expected to start on Opening Day.
That leaves Dominguez without a clear everyday role. And his case for a bench spot is weakened by the fact that the Yankees’ lineup already skews heavily left-handed. What the team could use most from a backup outfielder is a right-handed bat, which is precisely the side Dominguez cannot hit from right now.
GM Brian Cashman said over the winter that he envisions Dominguez playing regularly in 2026, but also acknowledged that the outfield math is not in his favor. Cashman has talked about the benefits of Dominguez playing daily, which has underlined the possibility that the switch-hitter could begin 2026 at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he would get consistent at-bats against lefties rather than waiting for occasional matchups on the big league bench.
Boone said he will try to match Dominguez up against left-handed pitchers as much as possible this spring. But the scheduling makes that difficult. Teams often do not finalize their pitching plans until the night before a game, while Boone builds his lineups a few days in advance to manage player workloads.
The tools that keep the Yankees invested in ‘The Martian’
Despite the platoon splits and the crowded outfield, the Yankees remain deeply invested in Dominguez. They signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2019 for $5.1 million, a franchise record for an international amateur at the time. He was 16 years old.
His 2025 season was hardly a failure. In 123 games, Dominguez hit .257/.331/.388 with 10 home runs, 47 RBI and 23 stolen bases. His sprint speed ranked in the 84th percentile in baseball. His bat speed and hard-hit rate (85th percentile) suggest the power everyone has been waiting for could still arrive.
The concern was defense. Dominguez posted minus-9 Outs Above Average in left field, which placed him in the third percentile among qualified outfielders. He struggled with angles and reads at Yankee Stadium, where left field is notoriously tough. The Yankees have indicated he will remain in left rather than move to center.
At 23, Dominguez has time. But the Yankees are in a championship window that does not wait. Cole is coming back. Judge is in his prime. The lineup is built to win now. If Dominguez cannot prove he belongs against both lefties and righties, his path to playing time in the Bronx narrows significantly.
The next few weeks of Grapefruit League action will not resolve the right-handed swing overnight. But every at-bat against a southpaw is another data point, another chance to build the experience that was stolen by injuries. The Martian is not giving up on switch-hitting. Neither are the Yankees. The question is whether spring training offers enough runway for it to matter.
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