The Martian's UFO Crash - A Postmortem Analysis

   Looks like Jasson Dominguez's Yankee career is likely done for. What a sad end to a very promising prospect. 

   When he first came up in 2023, I thought he was the best looking Yankee hitter that I had ever seen come up. And I've been a fan since 1981. Yes, I thought he looked better than Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Alfonso Soriano. Definitely better than Bernie Williams, who took years of struggling in the majors to get going on his incredible career as the best clutch hitter of his time. Better than Aaron Judge, who didn't look like much more than an all or nothing home run hitter for his first 84 at bats in 2016. That optimism was due to Dominguez looking like a smart, big time young veteran hitter who still had great bat speed to get around on the fastball. It appeared that he was able to make adjustments during at bats, that he could sit on the fastball, yet still adjust to the off speed pitches. He was able to actually hit breaking balls, not just watch them go out of the strike zone or foul them off.

   So, on to the grisly post-mortem. What the hell went wrong? On the surface, it seems Dominguez was born under an unlucky star. He lost a year due to the Covid epidemic. He tore his right elbow UCL ligament less than a week into his Yankee career, thus losing another year. Then, he was never really given a fair shot to make it as an everyday player in 2025, being benched and then eventually sent down to the minors. (To be fair, his outfield defense in left field turned out to be pretty horrendous, thus contributing to his benching and demotion. Although it is a legitimate question as to why he was put into left field, which position he had never played before.) Another thing that contributed to his demotion was his right handed hitting, which was about as bad as anything we've ever witnessed in a major leaguer. I think he was something like 1 for 50 from the right side at one point.

   In 2026, he started the year in the minors, then got promoted and received a halfway decent shot, 53 games, almost exactly one-third of a season to show what he could do. He put up a below mediocre line: a .650 OPS. He did hit 6 home runs, which ain't exactly rubbish. If you translate that to a full year, that's 18 home runs. He showed tremendous improvement from the right side, hitting .279 with .744 OPS against lefty pitching. But this time, it was the left side hitting that killed him. From the left side, against righty pitching, he hit only .198 with a .589 OPS. Since there are a lot more righty pitchers than lefty pitchers, that'll get a young player demoted, for sure.

   So why was he so bad from the left side this year? Seems to me that he is using a terrible approach. He is not getting "the head out". He does not appear to be looking for the fastball to try to drive it. Instead, he seems to be looking for the off speed pitch most of the time. When he gets the fastball, particularly when hitting left handed, he simply takes it for a strike, especially if it's on the inside part of the plate. He also seems to be expanding the zone, swinging at bad pitches. Not enough strike zone discipline. 

   If I was a right handed pitcher, I would just blow this guy away with fastballs up and in. He doesn't even offer at them. Can't even foul them off. Until he shows me that he can "get the head out" and drive those pitches, that's all he's getting. Conversely, that's what he needs to do to get going from the left side. He has to look for the heater and then get the head out, drive it hard. 

   As a right handed hitter, he has improved greatly, as I said. A .270 batting average on the current Yankees is almost like Joe DiMaggio. Nothing to scoff at. But he does appear to be a little too pull conscious. Sometimes, he swings right through hittable fastballs over the plate. That's probably because he's trying to pull pitches that he should be taking the other way. Thus, the next step for him as a righty hitter is to drive those pitches to the opposite field. He should pull inside pitches, but if it's away or over the plate, make it easy on himself: take them the other way.

   Next, let's look at the base running. He's very fast and is a very good base stealer. Seems to have the right instincts on the basepaths. The one criticism here is that he always slides headfirst. And he slides extremely late, thus oversliding the base. At second or third base, obviously, that's a problem if he gets himself out. This has happened a couple of times this year.

   Now let's put it all together. This kid has a lot of talent. Compare Dominguez to Caleb Durbin. I think Durbin does not have half the talent as a batter, but he's doing much better, hitting about .250. The other day, I saw Durbin take a very high fastball and just serve it into right center field against the hated Dodgers. He didn't hit it overly hard. He just barreled the ball and hit it where it was pitched. Why is Durbin so much better, despite half the talent?

   You have to think that it's the coaching here. Yankee management must be relying too much on Artificial Intelligence to generate volumes of useless stats. You have to rely on your own eyes to tell you what's wrong, not rely on data analysis by computers. The batting coaches have to tell Dominguez to get the head out and drive those fastballs that he keeps taking from righty pitchers. They have to get in the batting cage and crank that pitching machine up to 100 mph, work on driving the ball. They have to work on hitting the other way as a righty hitter against lefty pitching. They have to tell him to stop sliding headfirst, because he's going to break his wrist sooner or later, maybe that he might even end his career that way. 

   One last thing. You can blame the coaching here, but at some point, the player has to be held accountable. Dominguez is 23 years old. Still young, but not a green colt anymore. He's got to see that he's making it a lot harder on himself than necessary. He's his own worst enemy, most of the time. Subscribe to the KISS method: "Keep It Simple, Stupid". If the batting coaches suck, he's got to get himself private batting instruction, outside of work hours, maybe on off days, maybe an hour here or an hour there before or after games. Definitely, he needs to get private coaching over the winter. And for crap's sake, just stop it with the headfirst slides. Stop it with the late slides. He doesn't even need coaching for that. Just slide feet first every time.