A Temperature Check on Jasson Dominguez
Entering the 2025 season, one of the most important young players for the New York Yankees was Jasson Dominguez.
He is having a solid season so far, with plenty of areas that provide reasons for optimism, and others that he still needs to improve in.
Before Monday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, Dominguez was slashing .238/.333/.393 on the season with two home runs, good for a 113 wRC+, according to FanGraphs. The Yankees will gladly take that over the course of a full season from their 22-year-old rookie. It would be a good jumping-off point for the rest of his career.
However, if you were to look at Dominguez’s Baseball Savant page, you would see that he is below-average in several areas.
This is because to properly contextualize Dominguez’s performance to this point in the season, it requires examining lefty-righty splits.
When digging deeper, that is where the encouraging signs lie.
Positives
Let’s start with the positives. Dominguez is raking as a left-handed batter against right-handed pitching this year. This was known to be the stronger side for the young switch-hitter when he was working his way up the ranks as a prospect.
As a left-handed batter, Dominguez is slashing .315/.383/.500 this season, with both home runs coming from that side, and his wRC+ sitting at a staggering 157. The results from that side of the plate have been great, and the advanced metrics paint a similar picture. Dominguez’s wOBA sits at .389, and his hard-hit rate sits at 39.5% as a left-handed batter. Baseball Savant’s percentiles do not separate by handedness, so it would be logical to conclude that his right-handed plate appearances are dragging down Dominguez’s advanced statistics overall.
Negatives
That brings us to Dominguez as a right-handed hitter against left-handed pitching. It has not been pretty, as he is slashing .100/.250/.200 on the season, with a wOBA of .223 and a hard-hit rate of 29.4%. The hard-hit rate is much better than it was earlier in the season, but the bottom line is that Dominguez still has a long way to go as a right-handed hitter. He historically has held his own in the minor leagues from that side, although it was never as strong as he was as a lefty. If he does not improve in this area, maybe giving up switch-hitting becomes a possibility in future seasons.
There are more right-handed pitchers than left-handed pitchers so that Dominguez will hit from the left side more often. He had 60 plate appearances as a left-handed batter as opposed to 36 as a right-handed batter going into Monday’s game. Given that, it makes sense that Dominguez still grades out as an above-league-average hitter according to wRC+.
It must be said that Dominguez is learning left field on the fly as well, and it would be a positive if he just holds his own defensively in 2025. Currently, he has 0 defensive runs saved and -3 outs above average, which indicates conflicting numbers. It makes his offensive production vital, and he is holding up that end of the bargain to this point. Dominguez is a good athlete, so hopefully the defense improves as he gets more time playing left field.
Lastly, Dominguez has stolen three bases this season and currently has a 0.3 BsR, so he should end up being at least somewhat of a positive in that area over the course of the season.
In total, Dominguez is a talented young player who has demonstrated both clear strengths and weaknesses.
Given his age, there is more than enough reason to feel content with how his first full season in the big leagues has started.
PHOTO: Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images
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Categorized:Yankees