As "The Martian" dug into the right side of the batter's box, a billion imaginations rollicked the same delirious dream: If he could deliver a big hit, a bases-clearing blast, it could be the breakout moment that Yank fans had fantasized for six long years, since Dominguez signed at age 16 for the then-largest bonus in baseball history.
This could be it. The moment. This could be The Emergence.
Well, it wasn't. Dominguez fanned on three sliders, watching strike three sail by like a chocolate in a Lucille Ball conveyor-belt skit.
In his brief MLB career, Domínguez is hitting .096 from the right side. O nine six. No HRs. A few walks. He fans a third of the time. Basically, as a RH hitter, he's Zolio Almonte.
And it's not a glitch of April. Throughout the minors, Dominguez hasn't wowed from the right side. He's what Yank fans could call an Oswaldo Cabrera switch-hitter - a bare notch above platooning. These days, when Oswaldo faces a lefty - he's a career .219 from the right - it's uncertain whether he'll even bother to hit RH. At 26, it's as if he's starting over.
Coupled with the wondrous rise of Trent Grisham, who has played like an all-star in the month of April, there is a pragmatic argument for the Yankees to platoon Dominguez or ditch him entirely. That would be a terrible long-term decision, and I wanna believe the front office knows this - but the Yankees are different than most teams, eh? They must contend every year. They cannot rebuild. They must win NOW. And we want 30 dolls, not two.
The Yankees have made their bed with Dominguez. At 22, he's too young to be shoehorned into a platoon. It would mean bad optics: They've hyped him relentlessly for six years. And from the left side, he's hitting .321 with 2 HRs. Obviously, there's something here. There's cause to believe he'll improve. He needs at-bats. He needs a season, maybe two, maybe - gulp - three. He needs a show of confidence. He needs the fan base to ignore the RH strikeouts and - gulp, gulp - lost fly balls in the sun.
So... do we have it?
Can the Yankees float a prospect during the annual marathon pageant that they call a pennant race? Clearly, the Yankees are contenders. They lead the AL East, which used to be baseball's best division, even if - right now - only two teams sport winning records.
So... how far will they go with a young switch-hitter, if he cannot break .100 from the right? For now, there's nobody at Scranton - or on the market - who looks like a RH platoon option. By the July trade deadline, somebody will emerge.
Will the Yankees stick with The Martian? That's an existential question for the franchise. Can he ascend? Get comfy on that couch, people. Have another chocolate. This might take a while.
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29 comments:
The problem isn’t can they be patient with JD while he grows, the problem is can they do it at the same time as Volpe, Wells and Cabrera do the same and still be a World Series contender. They can’t.
I’m gonna say right now this season was lost when Cole went down. I think they’ll make the playoffs because it’s a weak year for the AL but the Dodgers are gonna be there waiting again. So, let the kids grow, learn what you got and don’t be afraid to push chips in for someone that can help NEXT year.
Cole is basically done. If he comes back next year and regains his form, I'll be amazed.
Volpe, the Martian, Wells, Peraza, Cabrera.... don't be surprised if they're all trade bait by July, barring great turnarounds. Will they all develop into stars? The odds are wildly against it. Maybe one, two tops. Most will be serviceable with flashes of brilliance.
You can't predict baseball, but I think those are the realistic expectations for the group. Hope I'm wrong.
Bring in some vets
Lead by example
Inspire, motivate, transform
Meh-diocrity ensues
Hal and Pal
With a nod and a wink
Watch as Boone begins to think
What can I do
What can be done
Maybe get thrown out more
Eject-u-lation?
Decent youngsters are always trade bait in the New York Yankees chaotic organization. But with The Martian, people often forget that he is always playing against guys 3-5 or more years older than him at every level. Additionally, between 2003 and 2004, his playing time was drastically reduced due to injuries. All together, this means that he is still a very young and raw product. The talent is definitely there, but he needs more playing time to perfect certain aspects of his game. The question, of course, is at what level should he accumulate this everyday experience? He needs to be at the MLB level because he has to play against the best to gauge his growth potential. The team has to endure the growing pains, as there will be dividends down the road.
Good piece, O Peerless One. I particularly love using "couched" as a verb!
I think, though, that one thing the extended playoffs have done is to lessen that gap between "rebuild" and "contend." Last fall, we saw all sorts of young and rising teams—teams that came very close to beating the Yankees—in the playoffs. Detroit, Cleveland, KC. No reason the Yanks can't be the same...
...And in any case, asking for a coherent strategy from Cashman—or one that passes up maximum profits for HAL, even for a season or two—is asking for the moon (or Mars). Never gonna happen. We just have to hope that The Martian is for real.
Don’t forget the upcoming work stoppage in ‘27. If he doesn’t pitch again in ‘26, you might have a soon to be 37 y/o pitcher coming off surgery who hasn’t pitched in 3 years.
Key question. He's great on Mars, with the weaker gravity and no air friction once he hits anything. But on Earth...
Anyway, just have him bat left handed. Always. He just might be a great natural lefty hitter. Switch hitting is alright if you can do it. If you can't, why bother? Really , if you learn to hit righties and lefties from one side, what's the downside of that? Develop your strength, dump your weakness. There aren't very many Mickey Mantles.
If it gives you no edge, it's kinda stupid to pursue it. I mean, my guess is that Judge can't hit from the other side of the plate. Who cares?
I was not one to fall for the hype; many fans did and still do, expecting a Mickey Mantle like emergence. What we have is a mildly promising, still very young player, who gets dominated while hitting from the right side. I blame Cashman + Steinly for again presenting an unbalanced, underwhelming roster. A few years ago we were too right handed, now we’re too left handed. The cupboard in SWB is bare, unless you have faith in Everton Pereira. (I don’t) This team still looks like an 84 win concoction, one Judge injury away from finishing at or below .500
JM - "Anyway, just have him bat left handed. Always. He just might be a great natural lefty hitter. Switch hitting is alright if you can do it. If you can't, why bother? Really , if you learn to hit righties and lefties from one side, what's the downside of that? Develop your strength, dump your weakness. There aren't very many Mickey Mantles."
This x100
I agree with Carl. If they really do think he's for real, then he has to play, not sit on the bench. And certainly not go back to the minors. He has to play in the majors. This is how you find out whether a potential star has star quality or not. There is no other way. And how long to wait? Well, depends on how raw you think he is. Remember Bernie Williams was very raw when he first came up, and he took something like FOUR YEARS to develop into a star. If they'd traded Bernie away after his first year in the majors, all those championships in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, probably don't happen. Think about that.
JM, a team that truly cared about winning would follow thar formula, but the Yankees would rather sell weak hope (and overpriced concessions) to their fan base.
This is why we fail.
I'm not much of a stat guy at all. So I didn't know if The Martian sucked from the right side throughout his minor league tenure, until Duque pointed it out. I still don't know what his right handed batting average was in the minors.
It is shocking that he can't hit at all from the right side, at least based on what he's done so far. The Martian says it's because he DOESN'T GET ENOUGH RIGHT HANDED AT BATS! Which, if true, would be why he should NOT be platooned. He is a natural right handed hitter, and he says the right side is his stronger side. So they better figure out what the hell is going on from the right side.
I previously thought he wasn't taking any stride from the right side. But watched videos carefully. I was wrong: he does take a small three, four inch step. Didn't see last night's game, so don't know what he looked like there. He definitely needs extra extra extra batting practice from the right side. Start from there. Less than .100 is pretty much unheard of.
Oh, I don't know about Mickey Mantle, but I was certainly expecting better than this. Especially from the right side, which was supposed to be his stronger side, being a natural righthanded hitter. (As most switch hitters are.) Less than .100 is unbelievable. Even if it's still not many at bats.
It still could be that he is too raw and has to develop much more. If true, then it could be like Bernie Williams. Might take four years, maybe more.
You're certainly right about them being unable to develop players or balance a lineup properly. The coaching in this system must be unbelievably bad. As in, like, the worst coaching that has ever existed in any major league organization in the history of baseball.
But JM, they say he's not a natural lefty hitter. He is supposed to be a natural righty hitter. He says that he's struggling from the right side because he doesn't get enough at bats!!!
Did the elbow injury take something out of his right handed swing? I noticed this was going on from the right side in 2023, a week after when he first came up. Had a game where he took some bad weak hacks right handed. Then poof! They suddenly announced that he had a torn UCL in the elbow and needed surgery.
I'm mostly with 999 on this—you gotta play him, to see what you got—but JM may be right about leaving off the switch-hitting. I dunno. Too bad the Yanks don't have the money to hire some bona fide baseball experts to coach the kid and find out.
We can assume the Yankees will do whatever is wrong for the kid. It's the Yankees way.
✅✅
and in other news, Glassman has been moved to the 60-day.
Will wonders never cease
Totally agree, it's too early for the doom and gloom. He deserves at least until JUNE. 😉
Ok, this is my "forever rant", but in the past twenty-five years the Yankees have developed if memory serves, THREE notable position players. Judge, Cano, and Gardner by my memory. Who am I missing, and how is this even possible? Almost as strange, the press, bloggers, YouTubers, NOBODY ever brings this up. Am I in my own simulated universe?
And Cashman picks up another AAA, sub .200 hitter off of waivers from the Braves. I'm sure the minor league Yankees OF are ecstatic.
Bravo, Knicks! And to think I was about to post here complaining about their shameful 4th quarter choke!
Bat left. No sense witch hitting if you can't hit from the right side
I've thought about The Martian might be struggling so much from the right side, and this is speculation, but the only thing I can come up with is that, after his recovery from the elbow surgery, they've taken it very slowly with his right handed swings. He probably was not allowed to ramp it up until spring training, maybe not until early or mid-April. Which would be why he said that he hasn't had enough work from the right side. Just a theory that would explain what's going on.
He probably was hitting for lower average right handed even before the injury. This would be because Yankee coaches didn't emphasize hitting right handed, since most pitchers are right handed and he would bat left handed against them. The injury and subsequent rehab only exacerbated the difference. And so now he's trying to catch up from the right side.
I've seen him put balls into orbit right handed, so the power was definitely there before the injury. How long it'll take or if he'll ever regain his right handed swing is a question mark until he starts to show something against lefty pitching.
He is 3 for 35 righthanded this year, which would be .086. So not a ton of at bats yet. But he's got to start showing something soon against lefty pitching.
By the way, just to put things in perspective, 3 for 35 is the usual Aaron Judge postseason. And it was the usual Alex Rodriguez postseason as well, until he finally had a monster postseason in 2009.
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