Dangerous Yankees trade deadline dream comes true with Jasson Dominguez news

New York Yankees fans caught wind of some promising injury news this week when manager Aaron Boone provided updates on Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Dominguez, both of whom are on the mend and hopefully nearing a return.

Stanton is supposed to make a decision very soon on whether or not he will require a rehab assignment before rejoining the Yankees, so we should know more on that front in a few days.

As for Dominguez, he's progressed rather quickly. He suffered an oblique injury just days before Stanton went down, which was the perfect injury storm to absolutely screw New York during a tough stretch of play. It was initially believed Dominguez would miss two months.

Though that's still on the table (pending the next step in his recovery), Dominguez was just activated and joined the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders for the weekend. He's batting leadoff on Friday night and it may not be long before he's with the Yankees. Quite frankly, he doesn't belong in the minor leagues anymore.

Great news, right? Absolutely. But there's a reason for fans to be concerned with the trade deadline just days away.

Dangerous Yankees trade deadline dream comes true with Jasson Dominguez news

While Dominguez will be a much-needed addition to a floundering Yankees roster/lineup, general manager Brian Cashman, like he has done before, might view the young slugger's return as some sort of "trade deadline acquisition" and an excuse not to get involved in the bidding for the market's top hitters.

And as much as we love Dominguez, he's struggled mightily with his health at the onset of his career. There's no telling if he'll be able to last the remaining few months of 2024. The Yankees, from an offensive perspective, need far more than just Dominguez and Stanton. The rest of the lineup with the exception of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are woefully below-average hitters. The bench is insufficient. The overhaul must still take place with Dominguez and Stanton in the fold.

What might that look like? We don't know, but it could start with getting rid of two of Alex Verdugo, Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu, in addition to definitely parting with JD Davis and Jahmai Jones. Stanton and Dominguez eventually getting activated should handle the latter two easy decisions, but the Yankees will have to think ahead for the others.

The Yankees have done this before. They've acted as if getting players back from injury were better than any other trade possibility on the market, but that thought process needs to be a distant memory with how often it has cost the franchise over the last five years.

Dominguez returning is great, but he is only part of the solution to the widespread lineup problems this team has.