Scout sounds worrisome alarm on Yankees’ Jasson Dominguez

Jasson ‘The Martian’ Dominguez’s 2021 season was as anticipated as any Yankees stateside debut in modern prospecting history. The results? Eh … encouraging-ish. 

Dominguez showed off his tremendous talent after ending up with Low-A Tampa midseason, but only in flashes. He was given the reward of a trip to the Futures Game, minor-league baseball’s most prominent prospect showcase, but it wasn’t exactly performance-based; he triple-slashed .258/.346/.398 in 48 games at the level.

This season, the Yankees chose to start him back in Tampa, letting him repeat the level and get his feet wet with new manager Rachel Balkovec. So far, the results have been less consistent than even 2021’s up-and-down season.

The highs — or, rather, the isolated highlights — have been stunning, suggesting the five-tool potential the Yankees have always coveted. The overall performance has been quite poor, though, even for a 19-year-old with a revamped swing.

Dominguez has struck out 35 times in 107 at-bats, a glaring figure that even baseball’s most polished hitters can’t out-slug.

Despite some prominent fireworks, the overall downward trend has led one anonymous scout to claim Dominguez “looks considerably worse” in his second go-’round at Low-A.

Yankees top prospect Jasson Dominguez sliding down scouts’ scales

According to the scout, who spoke to NJ.com, things aren’t as pretty as Dominguez’s swing:

"NJ Advance Media granted the scout anonymity so that he could speak his mind, and the report that he provided over the phone on Saturday matched Dominguez’s disappointing statistics: .223 average, 2 homers, 9 RBI, .628 OPS, 5 errors in 22 games heading into Sunday.“It’s certainly not a prospect to get excited about in terms of a surefire thing in the major leagues, which I think is really what he was being touted,” the scout said. “Dominguez looks considerably worse than last year.”Really?“Every time I’ve seen him, it’s gotten worse,” the scout said."

But … it could get better … right?

When Dominguez manages to hit a baseball, it looks terrifying. For example, watch this video, but use protection:

Plus, he just went off on Tuesday night in a 3-for-5 outing that featured two runs scored, a homer and four RBI, then parlayed that into another rocket double on Wednesday. Could this scout’s angry gibberish end up being Dominguez’s pivot point?

It’s worth remembering — as difficult as it may be — that Dominguez is just 19. While some 19-year-olds are Wander Franco, big-league ready from the jump and dictating at-bats to a special degree, others simply aren’t (even though Dominguez was similarly sold to the Yankees’ faithful).

There is a spark in that bat. It’s obvious when you watch the best swings of the kid’s season. Finding it consistently is the most difficult part, though.

Scouts who watched Dominguez clearly didn’t get it wrong. They might’ve just overestimated how simple it would be for his raw skills to translate into a consistent package. There’s plenty to dream on here, but 1.5 years into the experiment, his future remains unsettled.

But, hey: if Everson Pereira does become a superstar instead, would that really be the worst thing in the world?

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