Yankees demote Jasson Domínguez after bleak Rockies misplay in late-night roster move

Jasson Domínguez made headlines earlier this week by alluding to Anthony Volpe's "Barry Bonds" transformation at Triple-A, due to his renewed work ethic. Unfortunately, he was only able to stick around one day to watch the show.

When Domínguez was promoted in Trent Grisham's place over the weekend, we theorized he'd be here for a good time and not a long time, soon to be replaced by Aaron Judge. Instead, Judge took Chase Hampton's roster spot and Domínguez remained on the roster just a little while longer. His time with the Yankees this September was neither good nor long, culminating with a misplayed line drive in right that helped score the Rockies' third run of Thursday's game.

Thankfully, that run came with 10 on the board for the Yanks - thanks in large part to Volpe - though it was a sour (and familiar) sense memory nonetheless. When the clock struck 11:00 PM, Domínguez became possibly the only player in MLB history to be demoted to the minors the same night he batted third in the starting lineup.

Who replaces Jasson Domínguez on Yankees' roster? it may be simpler than you think.

September's roster limits grant each MLB team 28 players rather than 26, and they can carry up to 14 pitchers at any given time. Given how strapped for healthy pitching (and effective bullpen pieces) the Yankees have been all summer, it seemed fair to assume they'd already hit that upper limit, but somehow ... they hadn't? Bednar, Blackburn, Cole, Fried, Fulmer, Gil, Headrick, Hill, Rodón, Schlittler, Schreiber, Warren, Yarbrough. That's 13, unless we're crazy?

That means Domínguez can cleanly head down for a 14th pitcher: Clarke Schmidt, who whiffed two in a scoreless 12-pitch frame at Double-A Somerset on Wednesday. It seems the Yankees are targeting the shortest of short relief for Schmidt as his rehab from a summer 2025 Tommy John surgery approaches its endpoint, and the Yankees certainly won't say no to ending his rehab clock and tossing him into the Subway Series if he's ready. Hopefully, the rest of the pitching staff stays intact around him, though Max Fried's laborious outing on Thursday left us all a bit skittish and skeptical. He might need some more rest, too.

Activating Schmidt would require a 40-man roster move as well; Bradley Hanner, Brendan Beck, or Angel Chivilli could be DFA'd (or, technically, could all be promoted instead).

It's been a bummer of a year for Domínguez, and his rarely inspired play looked especially feckless in this latest short stint. Whether it's Schmidt or a direct one-for-one replacement like Oswaldo Cabrera, who was also scratched from Wednesday's Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lineup before the Yankees settled on Volpe, it's safe to say the currently gelling iteration of the Yankees won't miss the version of Domínguez they just watched bat a liner around right field with his mitts. Again.

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