The Martian and a flamethrower will represent the New York Yankees at this year's All-Star Futures Game.
The organization's top prospect, Jasson Dominguez, is among the phenoms making the trip to Coors Field in Colorado next month to participate in this highly-anticipated showcase of the brightest young talent across Major League Baseball.
Joining Dominguez is the Yankees' seventh-ranked prospect, right-hander Luis Medina. Medina is currently pitching for the Somerset Patriots—New York's Double-A affiliate—after being promoted from High-A Hudson Valley earlier this season.
Not only are these two prospects arguably the perfect duo to represent a talented Yankees farm system, it's a group that's poised to make history. When Dominguez, 18, takes the field, he'll be the first player to participate in the Futures Game without having played in a full-season league and he’s the youngest player since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. played in the game at age 18 in 2017.
Dominguez made his professional debut this week, suiting up for the FCL Yankees of the Florida Complex League. He's been compared in the past to some of the best players to ever play this game and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is eager for Dominguez to show the baseball world what he's capable of on the biggest stage.
"His growth mindset, his openness to information and trying to adapt and adjust and acclimate stand out,” Cashman told MLB Pipeline. “You get an antenna up early on higher selections in the draft or the bigger bonus guys… they come in with ‘I don’t need any help.’
“He’s actually open to everything we’ve got and incorporating things because he’s hungry to climb the ladder, so he’s not going to turn away from any opportunity to get better. The willingness to trust and adjust a process that’s new to him. That’s pretty encouraging to us, combine that with his work ethic and physical gifts, it provides a higher opportunity for him to reach a level of his ceiling.”
Medina deserves the spotlight as well. The 22-year-old posted a sparkling 2.76 ERA over seven games with High-A, racking up 50 strikeouts over 32.2 innings pitched.
It's been a struggle for the right-hander through his first three starts in Double-A—7.07 ERA in 14 innings—but Medina can light up the radar gun and make the best hitters in any lineup look silly at the plate.
The Futures Game is scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 11, aired exclusively on MLB Network and simulcast on MLB.com.
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