ARLINGTON, Texas — By now, it has become clear that the Yankees believe sticking with Alex Verdugo in left field is their best option down the stretch.
That means Jasson Dominguez will continue waiting in the wings at Triple-A while racking up more at-bats and reps in the outfield during a season in which he has missed time rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and then suffering an oblique strain.
But is the top prospect ready for a return to the big leagues if and when he is called upon?
“He was a different guy on the field than everybody else,” an AL scout who saw Dominguez play recently at Triple-A said on Tuesday. “He looked like he was ready. I think in the Yankees lineup, he’s probably a six or seven-hole kind of guy right now. … He’s got whack, he can run. He brings a lot of things to the table.
“I didn’t see anything that stood out that would say, ‘He needs more time here.’ ”
An NL scout who also saw Dominguez play for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last month said the switch-hitting 21-year-old “looked surprisingly good for somebody who’s missed all the time that he’s missed.”
“He had pretty good at-bats, surprisingly his timing was good,” the NL scout said Tuesday. “He barreled up some balls really well from the left-handed side of the plate. I only saw one at-bat right-handed. But he looked fine in [batting practice]. Played solid in the outfield.”
Manager Aaron Boone has continued to leave the door open for Dominguez to join the Yankees at some point this month, despite not being called up on Sunday when rosters expanded.
But at this point, the club appears more inclined to keep rolling with Verdugo instead of throwing Dominguez — with nine games of big league experience — into the fire as the starting left fielder down the stretch of a division race.
“It’ll be interesting,” the NL scout said. “I’m not a big Verdugo fan, but I’m also maybe not a fan of throwing [Dominguez] into the heat.”
It was notable on Monday when Boone, in a span of a few minutes while answering different questions about each player, said Dominguez had some “room for improvement” defensively while opining that Verdugo should be “in the Gold Glove conversation.”
If the Yankees continue to bat Verdugo eighth or ninth — which is where he has been in each of the last nine games including Tuesday (eighth) — his offensive struggles may be more palatable if he is providing strong defense, though he was batting 12-for-34 over his last nine games entering Tuesday.
As for Dominguez, both scouts said that his arm looked no worse for wear after Tommy John surgery.
The AL scout graded his arm as “a tick better than average,” which is right around where it was before surgery.
The Yankees have mixed in some left field duties of late for Dominguez — though not on a daily basis — and the AL scout said he looked comfortable there.
Dominguez’s only MLB action this season came in the Little League Classic in August, when the Yankees called him up as the 27th man and started him in left field against Tigers lefty ace Tarik Skubal.
It was a challenging assignment, and he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and also double-clutched a throw home that allowed the Tigers to score the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
“I think he can play center,” the AL scout said. “I actually have him in left field as well [long-term]. I think that’s where he’s probably going to end up and be an offensive corner bat from both sides. But he is a runner, still runs well. But same guy I’ve seen. He’s just had the injury bug, that’s all that’s keeping him back.”
