2024 New York Yankees Spring Training / New York Yankees/GettyImages
Want to get angry? Of course you do. The three-day holiday weekend just ended. You want to shake your fist at the sky. Here to help. Jasson Dominguez is on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, but he’s not active with the big-league club. Fans woke up Sunday ready to celebrate the second “Opening Day” of the next phase of their fandom (third, if you count the Little League Classic), but were instead treated to four different roster moves, none of which involved Dominguez.
You want a Rookie of the Year candidate late in the season to upgrade the lineup? Eh, best I can do is a pinch-runner named Duke. Don’t worry, don’t worry, he won’t see the field. Yeah, we’re just doing stuff to do stuff.
So, what gives? Were the Yankees really unable to “find a lane” for Dominguez, despite current starter Alex Verdugo’s .547 OPS between June 19 and Sept. 1? Were they living in fear of all the “rust” he accrued during Tommy John and oblique rehab? Maybe his defense is lagging too far behind his offense (.811 OPS at Triple-A after an early slump)? He did double-clutch on the walk-off hit in his only MLB appearance of 2024, after all.
Or maybe it’s something more nefarious. Though the Yankees insist they simply believe in Verdugo, it seemed likely that the draft pick incentives tied to Dominguez winning Rookie of the Year in 2025 were also at play, and keeping him eligible was important to the braintrust. Except … hey, maybe the Yankees don’t know this, but according to Baseball America, the service time Dominguez accrued on the MLB IL earlier this season has already rendered him ineligible for such things. If he’d suffered his UCL tear in the minors, it’d be a different story.
The Yankees haven’t called up Jasson Dominguez yet, but as @MattEddyBA first noted, it has nothing to do with hoping Dominguez can earn a PPI pick in 2025.https://t.co/fLaX5UHsDM
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) September 3, 2024
Yankees won’t get extra draft pick if Jasson Dominguez wins 2025 Rookie of the Year
But what of that service time concern? If the Yankees are motivated by keeping Dominguez under team control, like the Cubs and Kris Bryant in the old days, it’s not an additional 100+ ABs they’re chasing. They also have to keep him under 45 days of service on the active roster. He’s currently at 32, meaning the team only has 12 additional games to work with. Unless an injury to Alex Verdugo causes them to rethink their priorities, the Yankees are unlikely to shift into “win now” mode until there are 12 games left in September. Does that sound like enough data to adjust a lineup for a playoff run? It sure sounds like a snub that would make Verdugo way angrier than if the decision was put forth today.
So @ChrisKirschner reminded me on the podcast that it’s not just the number of ABs for Jasson and his rookie status. It’s also about active roster service days. He is at 32 and has to stay under 45 days. So they have to be mindful of ABs and days *if* it’s about service time. https://t.co/Una18qqhZO
— Randy Wilkins (@pamsson) September 2, 2024
Plus, if each Dominguez game is a precious diamond attached to a bomb on a ticking clock, then WHY was he promoted for ONE DAY to bat against TARIK SKUBAL, then demoted again? There were other players in Pennsylvania that day.
All of this is befuddling, outdated, and so Yankees. Hopefully, none of it ends up mattering, and Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and Dominguez can happily share an outfield next season. But we’d really like them to share one on Oct. 5, too.
