Critics missing real reason Yankees fans were desperate for Jasson Dominguez addition

By now, Yankees fans are used to being called whiners any time they levy legitimate criticism on their $300+ million behemoth that can't get out of its own way. Besides, who cares about cash flow when the team would rather spend on researching a clever way to tie their own shoelaces over three competent baseball players?

But whether outsiders like it or not, the Jasson Dominguez situation appears to have been mishandled in the exact way fans were worried it would be when they spent the late summer clamoring for him to be elevated to the bigs as soon as it was physically possible.

Dominguez's bat has flashed from time to time, and his at-bats have been professional, but sloppy play after sloppy play in left field have helped open the door for Alex Verdugo starting Game 1 of a postseason series. The gaffes have been so plentiful and glaring that even rational Dominguez supporters have started to warm to the idea of a league-worst bat starting do-or-die games.

Haters, of course, have used this as fuel to question the fan base's intelligence. "You were so desperate for him! You thought he had nothing left to learn in the minors! And he DID! HA!"

Unfortunately, this oh-so-witty biting commentary misses the core of the issue. Yankee fans didn't want Dominguez promoted because he was a perfect angel who could do no wrong. They wanted him up while Verdugo struggled because they knew he needed MLB reps. He needed time to get used to left field, an unfamiliar position. Fans wanted to collect as much data as they could on Dominguez before October began, in order to know if he was ready and/or get him ready, if they could be so bold.

Instead, they've received three home series in the Bronx and road games in Seattle and Oakland, two outfields he won't be playing in this October. And he's not grading out well. The whiners, this time, have been proven 100% correct, and time is running out.

Yankees running out of time on Jasson Dominguez, just like fans feared

This was never about adding a "savior" midstream. It was about maximizing the Yankees' chances of winning in October. Given their ongoing deficiency in left field, Dominguez seemed like a pretty safe bet to do just that. But would the improvement be marginal, negligible, or massive? That's where time comes in.

Once healed from his midsummer oblique strain and in a Triple-A groove, Dominguez needed to be an immediate option for the big-league club so Aaron Boone and Co. could properly assess his feasibility. Instead, we got a way-too-late addition, and now have four games to shake off the black cloud of defensive integrity.

Perhaps that's been the point from the start, just as fans (right again!) feared. Maybe the Yankees had their minds made up, and didn't want any positive data to dissuade them from loyalty to Verdugo. Maybe they were hoping to run out the clock all along.