In 2023, the Yankees' season has been quite difficult. The club was squeezed out of the playoff picture very quickly, and in August, everyone suspected that the Bombardiers were practically eliminated.
The injuries hurt, of course, but the club was poorly constructed.
The good news, however, is that at the end of the season, the Yankees went into 2024 mode. Michael King was sent into the rotation, where he excelled. That allowed the Yankees to make him the centerpiece in the deal that brought none other than Juan Soto to the Bronx.
And at the end of the season, many young players were called up, including the electrifying Jasson Dominguez. THE Martian was quick to shine, hitting a home run against Justin Verlander in his first career swing.
And for a week, Dominguez looked like he belonged in the Majors… until an elbow injury ended his season after just eight MLB games.
Even worse, he needed Tommy John surgery…so much so that he was expected to miss a good part of 2024.
On the other hand, it seems that the Martian used his alien powers to heal, because according to the Yankees, Dominguez can be expected to be healthy “sooner rather than later.”
According to Aaron Boone, Dominguez is really going to look like a regular in training camp.
Obviously, it would be absurd to expect Dominguez to be ready in the first game of the season… but Boone's comments suggest that we might not have to wait until the All-Star break either.
The Yankees will be careful about their young prodigy, but he seems to be recovering at a phenomenal speed.
That said, when he returns, the Yankees will have big problems to deal with in the outfield. We'll have to see if Dominguez's elbow will allow him to play in the outfield, but if that happens, we'll have to split three spots between Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez.
And if he can't, he may have to be a designated hitter…sending Giancarlo Stanton full time to the outfield. But if that were to be the case, I have a feeling Dominguez would go to AAA to get some playing time.
The good news, on the other hand, is that Dominguez is doing better and that we could see him back in uniform fairly quickly, according to his manager. As for the outfield, this will be a nice problem for Aaron Boone to solve in due time.
