If Alex Verdugo isn’t operating out routine grounders as a result of he’s “beat up,” as Aaron Boone says, that’s but another excuse to name up prime outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez.
The choice to hold the uber gifted Dominguez at Triple-A past the Sept. 1 roster enlargement date confounds many (together with some Yankees individuals). And for many, phrase that it was made as a result of GM Brian Cashman and supervisor Aaron Boone proceed to place confidence in Verdugo doesn’t make it very significantly better.
Boone talked about a pre-September “dialog” amongst Yankees higher-ups about whether or not to advertise Dominguez, and insiders say it was very spirited dialogue, with a number of executives strongly arguing for promotion, clearly unsuccessfully.
It isn’t that Cashman and Boone aren’t large followers of Dominguez, who’s hitting .310 with an .870 OPS within the minors; they’re. The Martian was held out of commerce talks, for Blake Snell and even for Juan Soto.
The problem is Cashman and Boone appear to have shocking, outsized confidence in Verdugo. Recall that Boone advocated for Verdugo for greater than a 12 months earlier than he was acquired for reliever Greg Weissert and two minor leaguers. I wrote June 15 that the Yankees received the higher of this deal, however with 85 % of his contracted tenure performed now, I’ll admit I used to be fast to evaluate.
Whereas Verdugo has performed a superb left area, he has far underperformed expectations offensively — and almost everybody in MLB these days — with a .547 OPS since June 15 (third worst amongst gamers with 200 plate appearances) and .655 total. He lately instructed Randy Miller of the Newark Star-Ledger that an allergy to his batting gloves might have been hindering him, and possibly that is all a part of the “Verdugo expertise,” we’ve heard about.
The slugger Dominguez carries the potential to make a scary lineup even scarier. The return of Giancarlo Stanton and prescient deadline pickup of Jazz Chisholm lengthened what at occasions degenerated right into a two-superstar lineup, however Dominguez makes it a possible Assassin’s Row.
Dominguez needs to be up. However within the meantime, a .650 OPS hitter must run out grounders.
