‘The talent is certainly immense’

Jasson Dominguez may still be a long way away from the major leagues, but he’s already the subject of conversations at Yankees Spring Training in Tampa.

Despite having just turned 18 years old earlier this month, Dominguez is already the top prospect in the Yankees organization and the 32^nd ranked prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.

Though he’s listed at just 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, the slugging outfielder has been described as a five-tool player with potential to be a 30-30-type of player, hitting for power and average from both sides of the plate, with enough speed and a strong enough arm to be an outstanding defender as well.

For all of his physical gifts, Dominguez has drawn a few early comparisons to some of the game’s best ever center fielders, such as Mike Trout.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked about that Trout comparison on Friday, and while he’s not ready to go there just yet, he’s very impressed by what he’s seen from the international prospect he Yankees signed in 2019.

“Probably in a lot of cases, that’s not really fair [to be compared to Trout], obviously,” Boone said. “I have gotten to meet Jasson on my trip to the Dominican last offseason. I got a chance to meet him and watch him move and watch him take BP. He’s a great kid. It was really cool meeting him. He was excited. I think the day I was with him, he was taking batting practice with Gary [Sanchez] and [Miguel Andujar]. At 16 years old, I hate to say at a batting practice session, but what I mean is looking the part. He’s a very physical kid, a lot of tremendous, physical attributes. It looks like the make-up is really good on him as well.

“I do look forward to him now starting to build some experience, some game-playing experience, and kind of creating his own. Path, which hopefully, at some point down the road, really impacts us. But I would say just being around him for a day, and obviously some of the video things I’ve seen on him, the talent is certainly immense, and I feel like it looks like we have a great kid on our hands. You like those two combinations. Where it leads – we’ll see.”

MLB Pipeline has a project date of 2024 for when Dominguez could finally crack the big leagues, but until then, Dominguez will continue to work on his craft as he gets closer and closer to pinstripes.