We've been waiting for the big impact to come and it sounds like it could come in 2025.
We're talking about New York Yankees top prospect Jasson Dominguez, who was one of the rookies that MLB.com highlighted as potential breakout players for this season.
But he will probably be in left field for the Yankees when the regular season begins, and his upside remains sky-high. He may never be the next Mickey Mantle or Mike Trout as some predicted when Domínguez was a teenager, but for 2025, he could be the Yankees' leadoff hitter and is projected as a top-50 outfielder by WAR, tied with the Dodgers' Teoscar Hernández.
There are double-digit rookies that Steamer projects to produce more than 1.0 WAR this season.@Spokes_Murphy takes a closer look at that group: https://t.co/Jh421atDR0 pic.twitter.com/VGjJQUOmZO
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) February 16, 2025
Though he made his major league debut in 2023, Dominguez hasn't played enough to exhaust his prospect status, earning the No. 21 spot in this year's version of the MLB Pipeline Top 100.
Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic, Dominguez is still just 21 years old. Lifetime, he's a .207 hitter in 26 big league games. He had four home runs in eight games during his 2023 cameo, but underwent Tommy John surgery that cost him a solid portion of 2024.
In the minors, he's a .274 lifetime hitter with 47 home runs (four seasons).
The Yankees are coming off a great year that saw them capture the American League pennant before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Though Dominguez won't directly replace Juan Soto, he's part of the solution that includes offseason additions Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt.
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