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Jasson Dominguez was once one of the top prospects in baseball.
Now, even before his injury last month, the New York Yankees‘ outfielder is a player on the fringes of a starting job.
He’s still young, and he hit decently in the major leagues last season, so there’s still hope. But it seems clear Dominguez isn’t going to reach the ceiling he was once viewed as having.
In a new article on Friday, ESPN’s David Schoenfield dug into some post-hype players and what their career progression could still look like. He put Dominguez in the “success and then some bumps” category.
He broke down multiple things that could be what have held Dominguez back, starting with overhype from the beginning.
“The most overrated prospects are those who are physically mature as teenagers,” Schoenfield writes. “Dominguez’s switch-hitting power and speed stood out compared with other players his age. As Kiley McDaniel wrote in 2020, ‘Some scouts say he’s the best 16-year-old baseball player they’ve ever seen.’ But he also offered little physical projection, so maybe that hype was unfair to a young kid.”
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In 2025, Dominguez struggled to hit against left-handed pitching.
And just as much an issue has been his defense in the outfield.
“Part of the problem is his defense in left field last year was not good, so he’s not the center fielder of the future as they once envisioned,” Schoenfield writes. “The likeliest path at this point is that Grisham departs after this season, Bellinger shifts to center and Dominguez plays left. He’ll still be just 24 years old at the start of the 2027 season, and though the out-of-this-world expectations are long gone, he can still turn into an above-average hitter.”
If Dominguez maintains a below-average glove even in left, he’ll have to hit. He’s a switch-hitter, which is intriguing, and he’s had some success.
In the short term, the Yankees need Dominguez to come back from his injury in decent shape. From there, they can see about getting him to develop further into a quality MLB player.
