Yankees insider suggests Jasson Dominguez may be at a crossroads in 2026

The Jasson Dominguez situation continues to be one of the more intriguing and frustrating issues facing the New York Yankees as we head towards spring training. The once-promising top prospect has faced calls for him to be traded all offseason. Those have only grown since Cody Bellinger agreed to return to New York.

The Yankees are desperate for a productive right-handed presence. That could be at any position on the roster, but outfield seems to be the most likely place the club can add a righty bat. It's needed, too. Bellinger and Grisham are lefties, and with a .569 OPS last season while batting right-handed, Dominguez might as well be a lefty, too.

Adding another outfielder to the mix would further constrain The Martian's pathway to playing time, but even if New York doesn't bring in any more competition, it's hard to decide the best way to handle him moving forward.

Do the Yankees trade him? Send him down to Scranton? Send him back to Mars? Those are the questions that Yankees insider Chris Kirschner attempted to answer in his mailbag column for The Athletic (subscription required).

Jasson Dominguez appears stuck as his Yankees' future is in doubt

Some acknowledge that trading Dominguez now would be selling low. Taking that a step further, re-signing Bellinger doesn't mean the soon-to-be 23-year-old is blocked for years. Trent Grisham is only here for one more year, and if he turns back into the pumpkin he's been for the majority of his career, there will be a hole in the outfield. Even more, there's a world where, in two years, neither Grisham nor Bellinger is on the roster.

Sending Dominguez down (assuming a righty outfielder is brought in) to work on his defense and right-handed hitting might seem logical, but as Kirschner points out, it's not that simple.

"Domínguez needs more development, and it may not be a good use of his roster spot if he’s headed toward being a part-time player this season. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said at the Winter Meetings that he did not want to send Domínguez to Triple-A last season after he lost his starting job, and Cashman may not want to do it again," Kirschner wrote.

Other insiders have been more bullish on a trade, and if someone truly offers value for the youngster, it can't be taken off the table entirely. Still, it's hard to see anyone coming close to what Dominguez could have fetched at this time last year.

The other option is to simply keep him on the roster and let things work themselves out. Kirschner acknowledged this point while responding to a different question about lineup construction.

"As for Domínguez, there will be plenty of at-bats for him if he remains on the roster. He was usurped in the starting lineup by the end of April this past season, and he still finished with 429 plate appearances. You have to assume that Stanton will miss time; he hasn’t played close to a full season since 2018, his first year with the Yankees. It would open up the DH spot, which could be used by Judge. That would force Bellinger to play right field, and Domínguez could play left field."

This same logjam existed last year, and for the most part Dominguez got semi-regular run. Sending him down to Triple-A would give him even more at-bats, but are more chances against lesser competition really more valuable than slightly fewer opportunities against a true challenge that could inspire growth?

Lost in this debate is the fact that Dominguez wasn't all that bad at the plate last year. He posted a 103 wRC+, which is a hair better than league average, despite being just 22 years old. His hard-hit rate was in the 85th percentile. He possesses 84th percentile sprint speed, which manifested itself on the bases in 23 steals. The tools are still there.

There are pros and cons for each possible outcome. Some lean more in one direction than the other, but there's no path forward that is clearly obvious. As things currently stand, Dominguez is on the roster, and how he performs in spring training could go a long way toward deciding his future.