Yankees Announce Surprising Jasson Dominguez Decision on Thursday

The New York Yankees gave Jasson Domínguez a rare look in the heart of the order Thursday, sliding the switch-hitting outfielder into the No. 3 spot for the series finale against the Colorado Rockies.

Aaron Judge sat out after starting the first two games of the series following his return from a broken rib. Manager Aaron Boone has been easing the captain back without a minor-league rehab assignment, and the rest day opened the familiar third hole in the lineup.

Domínguez will start in right field and bat third. It is only his 20th appearance in that slot across 206 regular-season games. He has spent most of his young career hitting fifth, sixth or seventh.

Ben Rice is leading off as the designated hitter, with Cody Bellinger hitting second in left field. Luis García Jr. is batting fourth at first base and Spencer Jones fifth in center. George Lombard Jr. is at shortstop, Ryan McMahon at third, Austin Wells behind the plate and Anthony Volpe at second.

Max Fried is on the mound for New York against Colorado right-hander Ryan Feltner. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees are playing for a sweep and a chance to add more space between themselves and the idle Boston Red Sox in the American League wild-card race. New York entered the day at 83-62.

Boone has not offered a detailed public explanation for the third-spot choice. The available pieces and the matchup tell most of the story. Trent Grisham is on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is also unavailable. Domínguez was recalled Sept. 5 when Grisham went down.

Feltner throws right-handed. Domínguez will bat left-handed against him, with left-handed hitters Rice and Bellinger in front of him and García behind him. Boone stacked the available left-handed bats rather than dropping Domínguez into the lower spots he occupied as recently as Sunday in San Diego.

Domínguez went 1-for-4 against the Padres on Sept. 6. He entered Wednesday’s 6-1 win over Colorado as a pinch-runner for Judge in the eighth inning and stayed in right field.

The 23-year-old is batting .229 with six home runs, 12 doubles, 14 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 205 at-bats this season. His .644 OPS and 78 OPS+ sit well below the .257/.331/.388 line he posted across 123 games in 2025.

It has been a season of stops and starts. The Yankees optioned him to Triple-A late in spring training even after he hit .325 with three homers in 45 exhibition plate appearances. He returned in late April when Giancarlo Stanton went on the injured list, then crashed into the left-field wall against Texas on May 7 and suffered a low-grade AC joint sprain in his left shoulder.

He began a rehab assignment in June, returned June 13, and was optioned again Aug. 4 amid deadline additions and a longer look for Jones. At Scranton/Wilkes-Barre he hit .306/.404/.471 with three homers in 99 plate appearances and cut his strikeout rate to 15.2 percent.

Domínguez signed with New York for a franchise-record $5.1 million international bonus in July 2019. Nicknamed “The Martian,” the Esperanza, Dominican Republic, native made his major league debut in 2023 and homered off Justin Verlander in his first at-bat.

Boone said earlier this year that last season was Domínguez’s age-22 campaign and “he very much held his own,” adding that while the outfielder is “still a work in progress defensively, I think he’s showing signs he still has a chance to be a really good player in this league.”

Boone also said, “He’s going to get his opportunities, so let’s not write the script on him too early.”

Fried entered the start 4-4 with a 2.73 ERA and 87 strikeouts. Feltner was 5-9 with a 5.91 ERA. The Yankees will try to keep the pressure on in a tight wild-card picture while they continue to manage Judge’s workload down the stretch.