TAMPA, Fla. — Jasson Dominguez’s spring training will dictate whether he’s on the Yankees’ Opening Day roster as a rookie starting left fielder or back in Triple-A, general manager Brian Cashman stated in the winter and at the start of camp.
This statement usually has been accompanied with a prediction that the organization thinks Dominguez will be ready to handle left field at the start of the season after struggling there badly last season following a move from center.
Perhaps a month from now, but the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect didn’t look good out there again Sunday playing the first five innings of a 4-0 loss to the Tigers.
In the Tigers’ third, Dominguez chased down a deep flyball hit by Colt Keith, then it dropped in for a cheap single when it was lost in the sun. The next inning, the first of three Tigers runs scored when it appeared Dominguez got a bad jump and then took a poor route on a double to left center by Andy Ibanez.
“What happened here today, I think it’s just really good teaching moments for us and Jasson,” said Yankees third-base coach outfielder Luis Rojas, who works with Dominguez daily on his left field play.
Last year, Dominguez’s struggles in left following a September call-up from Triple-A were a big reason why slumping Alex Verdugo started all 14 playoff games instead of losing his job to the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect.
A switch-hitter, Dominguez’s bat hasn’t played up yet in two games, either. His 0-for-2 on Sunday left him hitless with a walk in four at-bats this spring. Last year he had a .179 average in 18 games with two homers, four RBI, 19 strikeouts and 11 walks in 67 appearances.
The Yankees are more concerned with Dominguez improving in left.
If he’s not ready by the end of spring training, the backup plan would have Cody Bellinger moving from center to left and fourth outfielder Trent Grisham starting in center.
Grisham hasn’t played yet because he showed to spring training with a sore hamstring, but he’s over the injury and just playing catchup. He’ll play his first game in a week to 10 days, Boone said Sunday.
Dominguez, 22, wasn’t available for an interview after Sunday’s game to talk about his defense, which was more evidence that he has his work cut out for the remainder of the spring.
“He’s been working really hard,” Rojas said. “We’ve been trying to simulate a lot of the things that you’re going to get, especially in spring training. There’s a lot of different things here. You get the Florida wind. You get the Florida high skies, You get the Florida Sun. Just a lot of factors that they’re throwing at you right away.
“Today he got the sun. He did a good job getting on the ball early, and then the ball got in the sun and he just didn’t know what to do. He got away from it. When the ball landed, he was able to recover quick and bring it in and nobody scored.”
Nobody scored because Matt Vierling, who led off the inning with a single, tried to score from first and was thrown out at the plate by 20 feet on shortstop Anthony Volpe’s relay to catcher Alex Jackson.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone doesn’t fault Dominguez for failing to run down the fourth-inning, run-scoring flyball to left-center, but Tigers TV play-by-play man Jason Benetti sure did.
When the ball was in flight, it was described this way:
“Flyball left field, this one’s deep. Dominguez back, now in. He will not get there. Wow! That one’s up against the wall. Jace Jung got a late break (from second) because it looked like Dominguez would make the catch and Jung will score easily. Andy Ibanez crushes one to the left-center field gap. Not well-played by Dominguez.
Here is Boone’s take:
“The ball in left center, he’s not going to get to. That’s having that good route where it’s head down, glove comes up late. He’s not going to get there anyway. It’s a gapper. But that’s where I think he can be really good, because he’s so athletic and because he’s so fast. That’s where we want to keep moving the needle.”
Rojas said after the game that he wanted to study the video before making a final verdict.
“It seems from just watching it live (Dominguez) got away from his running form a little bit towards the end,” he said. “It’s some of the things that we talk about. I don’t know what the catch probability was on that, but it’s definitely something that we’re going to break down and talk about it.”
The Yankees still believe Dominguez will master left field with more practice.
“He can run, he’s got great hands, he’s got a cannon for an arm,” Rojas said. “That’s a lot of a lot of good things. Obviously, at this point we know a majority of his experience is in center field. It’s his second year playing left field on a daily basis and he’s still getting acclimated.
“I think he’s ready to play it, but some of the things that he may run into and the environment like this in Florida, they’re actually going to make him better.
“Even though we simulate everything with machines and fungos (in outfield practice), that’s not going to be the same as a ball coming off a big-league hitter’s bat. So he’s seen some of that already the second game, and that you add those to the (weather) factors, I think those are just going to make him better.
“His future is great in the outfield just because of the tools he has. The skills, I think it’s inevitable they’re going to develop.”
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.