When the New York Yankees paid a franchise-record $5.1 million bonus to sign then 16-year-old Jasson Dom\u00ednguez out of the Dominican Republic in 2019, scouts described him as \u201can elite level athlete\u201d with \u201celite baseball tools.\u201d The teenager with the odd nickname \u201cThe Martian,\u201d supposedly due to his \u201cotherworldly\u201d talent on the diamond, was \u201cthe kind of player who makes the hair on your arm stand up.\u201d Since Dominguez has been given his shot at the major leagues, however, it may be the hair on Yankee fans\u2019 heads that stands up \u2013 out of sheer fright. Not due to the rookie\u2019s batting prowess, which remains mostly unquestioned, but due to his defense in left field.<\/p>\n
The numbers bear out those fears. According to Fangraphs Defensive Runs Saved metric, in just 13 big league games spread over 2023 and 2024, Dominguez is already responsible for allowing four more runs than an average outfielder. If he were to play 162 games – that is, every game in a full season – Dominguez would have been responsible for 49.8 extra runs, at rate he is going. Measured by the Fangraphs defensive runs saved metric, the all-time worst outfielder was Jermaine Dye, who played 1,763 games from 1996 to 2009. Over his career Dye was responsible for allowing 65 more runs than average. On a per-162 game basis, Dye allowed 5.97 extra runs.<\/p>\n
While the sample size for Dominguez is obviously small, an outfield defensive performance more than eight times worse than the worst ever recorded is not a good sign, to say the least. The now-22-year-old, on whom the Yankees are counting to hold down left field this season, has seen his struggles continue into spring training. He dropped a fly ball to turn an out into a double for Philadelphia Phillies hitter Edmundo Sosa in a Thursday game that ended in a 7-7 tie.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t his first mistake of the preseason, either,\u201d wrote Alexander Wilson of Empire Sports Media on Friday. \u201cHe\u2019s already lost a ball in the sun and misjudged a double into the gap, moments that highlight just how raw his outfield play still is.\u201d It was that type of outfield play that on Thursday prompted Boston-area sports television personality and podcaster Jared Carrabis to take to his X (formerly Twitter) account to describe Dominguez as \u201ca horrendous defender. Maybe the worst of all-time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not just Boston bias from Carrabis. One Yankee fan online described himself as \u201cscared\u201d to see Dominguez in left field, while another wrote, \u201cDefinitely worried about Jasson\u2019s defense in left. He just doesn\u2019t look comfortable out there. Yikes!\u201d New York sports talk host Keith McPherson of WFAN radio also expressed deep concern over Dominguez\u2019s defense, in a Friday broadcast. \u201cThis is the time to have the conversation and maybe have some alternatives. The whole baseball world just mocked the Yankees for their defense,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cWhy throw this young man into left field if he\u2019s not prepared?\u201d<\/p>\n
One obvious, if short-term, answer would be to simply move Dominguez to the designated hitter role, as long as regular DH Giancarlo Stanton remains injured and unable to play. But Jason Burgos of Sportsnaut on Saturday suggested a \u201cwin-win\u201d trade scenario that would send starting pitcher Marcus Stroman to the Mets for outfielder Starling Marte. The problem with that scenario is that Stroman, previously considered expendable, now appears headed back into the Yankees starting rotation after all, thanks to an injury to last year\u2019s Rookie of the Year Luis Gil.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the New York Yankees paid a franchise-record $5.1 million bonus to sign then 16-year-old Jasson Dom\u00ednguez out of the Dominican Republic in 2019, scouts described him… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":37988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n