Yankees prospect Jasson Dominguez has a grand total of 35 games under his belt at the Double-A level between this season and last. So it’s hard to be too surprised by the slow start at the plate this year, but things have started to turn the other way.
Dominguez has 14 hits over his last 11 games for the Somerset Patriots of the Eastern League and earlier this week when amNewYork was in attendance, he hit a solo home run against the Reading Fightin’ Phils which was his third during that span. The 20-year-old outfielder’s batting average 0f .210 may not be where some had hoped, however, his focus has been on the bigger picture.
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During a recent media session, Dominguez acknowledged his low batting average and added that he felt good at the plate. Dominguez has done well offensively in other areas, drawing 28 walks, scoring 25 runs and stealing 13 bases.
All of which is good for top five in the Eastern League.
“He knows the batting average is not there,” Dominguez said through a translator. “But he’s just not just focused on that. He’s focused on all the stuff.”
Ranked as the Yankees’ top prospect by MLB Pipeline, Dominguez is carrying plenty of expectations on his shoulders. The Bombers invested a whole lot of money into him at a young age and he had a strong spring that caused plenty of excitement.
He was also coming off a 2022 season in the minors where he hit .273 across three levels of the minor league system and had 26 home runs and 59 RBIs.
While Dominguez works to get his offense back to where he’d like it to be from last year, there are still plenty of signs that he’s moving in the right direction. The high volume of walks he’s drawn shows that he’s reading pitches well with pitchers being more cautious during his at-bats.
Of the 543 pitches that Dominguez has seen this season, 243 were called balls, according to Fangraphs.
“With the strike zone I feel comfortable,” Dominguez said. “ I recognize all the pitches and I’d say the only part that I’m missing are pitches there in the strike zone. I know that I’m not chasing pitches so that’s why I’m getting a lot of walks. I’m controlling the pitches in the strike zone.”
He added: “I started feeling that since last year in the beginning of the season. I was getting better with the strike zone and I got the same feeling, getting better. Every time I got more at-bats I feel better with controlling the strike zones.”
Dominguez also said that despite the number of pitches out of the strike zone, he hasn’t been trying to be overaggressive at the plate.
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