With the Yankees’ starting outfield locked in again, youngster Jasson Dominguez’s role is a bit of an unknown heading into this season.
Dominguez spent all of last year on the big-league roster, but the team struggled to find him consistent at-bats for the majority of the second half.
GM Brian Cashman considered optioning him to Triple-A at the time, but he ultimately decided against it.
With the 23-year-old facing similar circumstances now, could that change?
“Stay tuned,” Cashman said. “[Trent Grisham] came out nowhere last year and really had an All-Star season and took control of one of those everyday spots with [Aaron] Judge and [Cody Bellinger], which reduced Jasson to a role player. There were still lanes for him to contribute with us coming off the bench, pinch-run, etc. when we were in the midst of a pennant race to try to determine the AL East title or Wild Card situation.
“So there are still ways,” Cashman continued. “Dominguez is an extremely talented player -- both offensively, defensively -- and he’s one of our best runners. Having him as a choice for a manager to use, coming off the bench at times definitely improves our chances of success because of his pure athleticism. So if everything stays the same, we’ll be forced to choose our best course of action to help this team.
“I would conceive that it’s in our best interest to get him everyday reps. We’ll be able to do that with all of these guys down here as they go through their ramp-ups, then we’ll see have to wait and see how the spring shakes out and who’s standing when we have our meetings closer to the end of camp. So we’ll see where it takes us.”
Dominguez finished 13th in AL Rookie of the Year voting after hitting .257 with 29 extra-base hits, 23 stolen bases, and a .719 OPS last season.