Yankees giving Jasson Dominguez ‘a full runway’ in face of left field growing pains
TAMPA — Aaron Boone said on the first day of camp that “if you can play outfield in the Grapefruit League, you’re in a pretty good spot.”
Through two games in left field this spring, the scoreboard reads: Grapefruit League 1, Jasson Domínguez 1.
The Yankees are giving Domínguez a long runway this spring to make the full-time transition from center field to left field, after his late-season experiment there last year did not go well.
And while his first game there Friday was uneventful, Sunday was more of a challenge, in part courtesy of the elements.
Domínguez lost a ball in the sun during the Yankees’ 4-0 loss to the Tigers at Steinbrenner Field, and an inning later did not give himself the best chance to get to another ball in the gap after taking an inefficient route, though Boone said it would have been a hit either way.
“There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to handle left field,” Boone said after the game. “We do like what we’ve seen these first couple weeks.”
Since he arrived in Tampa, Domínguez has been working with outfield coach Luis Rojas on getting more comfortable in left field, with the Yankees planning to use Cody Bellinger in center field regularly.
Boone said Sunday that configuration would be best because on days Trent Grisham comes off the bench to play center field (where he has won a Gold Glove), he doesn’t want to be bouncing Domínguez to left, preferring to keep him in one spot.
For that reason, Boone does not necessarily plan on flip-flopping Domínguez and Bellinger on occasion this spring.
“I want to give it a full runway of [Domínguez] doing all his work,” Boone said. “If I have to make a decision late — because I’m not worried about moving Belly at any given moment. I don’t want to do that as much with Jasson.”
Instead, the Yankees want to keep running Domínguez out there in left field, sunny afternoon skies and windy conditions be damned.
“He’s been working really hard,” Rojas said. “We’ve been trying to simulate a lot of the things that you’re gonna 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. There’s just a lot of factors that are thrown at you right away and we tried to simulate that for the last two or three weeks knowing he’s going to get it. Today he got the sun.”
Domínguez’s third inning began by snagging a sinking line drive off the bat of Hao-Yu Lee before Cole Keith skied the ball to left that Domínguez lost in the sun.
He did make a quick recovery after the ball dropped, finding it and firing to Anthony Volpe, who threw to the plate to nail a runner trying to score.
In the fourth inning, Jace Jung hit a ball to the gap in left-center field that had an expected batting average of .740.
Domínguez had a long way to run before it dropped a few feet behind him, but Rojas noticed some teaching points on the play.
“Watching it live, it seemed like he got away from his running form a little bit towards the end,” Rojas said. “He was hanging his glove and some of the things we talk about that can probably take a step or two getting closer to a ball — I don’t know what was the catch probability on that, but it’s definitely something we’re going to break down and talk about. We intend to do that, whether he makes a play or not, to keep learning the position. … He’s got great tools and we really think he’s going to be successful at the position.”
His teammates think so, too.
“His attention to detail is continuing to mature based off me catching glimpses of him through his work here and there,” Gerrit Cole said. “He’s maturing and getting better. The fact that he’s unwavering in his approach through a lot of what he’s been through, that’s what has me feeling confident.”
