Ink is still raining on Jasson Dominguez’s first contract when his Instagram exploded.
It was the summer of 2019, and Dominguez, a 16-year-old Dominican Republic phenomenon who had just won a massive Yankees signaling bonus. He had signed the agreement and was on his way home when he checked his phone. I opened it and saw that it had 1,500 new subscribers,” Dominguez said through an interpreter last month. “I got rid of it to upgrade it, and it had 2,500 new subscribers. If the $5 million bonus is the first sign that your life is about to change, it’s the second. A nickname soon followed: The Martian, for his supernatural abilities.
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That number of fans has continued to soar to the sky, now at 148,000, but that’s just a measure of the hype that has surrounded the 19-year-old since he entered professional ball 3 years ago. Before Dominguez, who flipped the change, saw a professional field, anonymous critics compared him to Mickey Mantle and Mike Trout. A New York Post headline called him a “super prospect. “Prodigy in a fully evolved frame with output speeds fully evolved to match.
Add in the fact that he plays for the Yankees, and that he won the biggest bonus the outstanding franchise has ever awarded to a foreign fan, and the review is almost overwhelming. “We have first rounds every year and we have someone signing for a few million dollars from the foreign market,” said Kevin Reese, New York’s vice president of player development, “but it’s an absolutely different point of hype and expectation. “The Mick didn’t have to deal with the magnifying effect of social media.
However, despite everything, miraculously Dominguez remains a general person. One day in mid-November, after his last game with the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League, Dominguez settled into a canoe bench and reflected on what was incredibly seen by the miners. He signed and then disappeared from public view for a year when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled what would have been his first season in the minor leagues. The effects of pedestrians on Low A in 2021 caused its main inventory. to plummet, as does a slow start to 2022 at the same level. But a torrid recovery, followed by promotions to High A and then to Double A, more than resurrected him. He is in two grades of the majors and probably would not turn 20. until February.
As enthusiasts and customer fans jumped off the wagon and returned, perhaps fixating on a more realistic projection of Dominguez’s fine-striped career, the young outfielder remained solid and carefree. Discover how unfair it is to publicly compare a 16-year-old to some of the greatest players to ever take a bat. Everyone except Dominguez, of course. Possibly it would have had to build on Mantle’s achievements: children adore other baseball heroes in the Dominican Republic. However, Dominguez doesn’t find it difficult to be discussed throughout Commerce Comet.
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He considers it a privilege.
“It’s an honor to be with those big names,” he said, sitting in a dirt-covered Yankees jersey, a smile filled with hugs that highlighted his youth, “and I hope one day to succeed in them and surpass them. “
Tired: living up to the hype done to him as a teenager.
Wired: live with it.
The No. 2 @Yankees aspirant performs a double laser RBI. pic. twitter. com/3SgSW41OAi
– MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) November 6, 2022
TJ Rumfield remembers betting against Dominguez in 2021, when the Yankees phenomenon made his debut in A low. I had heard of this guy, the next Yankees star who was already on his way to the Hall of Fame, and Rumfield didn’t like it. “When you play opposite him, you think he’s that arrogant kid who has everything,” said Rumfield, who was selected in the Phillies’ 12th round that same year. But after a replacement in New York and closer exposure in Dominguez, Rumfield still couldn’t help replenish his mind. “Then you play with him,” the first baseman said, “and the kid has his feet on the ground and he needs to laugh and play baseball. “
It’s almost having heard of Dominguez and having kept his mind. “Everyone has preconceptions about him,” Rumfield said. He’s not even 20 years old, Dominguez has already been the next big thing and a fiasco. Amateur scouts were naturally drawn to his tools, which come with an arm that at least one Yankees coach says has been timed at a hundred miles per hour in the outfield and comes out at speeds to rival the major leagues. Twenty years, not a teenager. But there’s almost no way you’re being slapped in the face of a Trout or Mantle composition and up to it.
When Dominguez made his professional debut with aArray744 OPS in part a season at Low A in 2021, a production that would be encouraging for up to 18 years, his inventory took a hit. Dominguez fell more than 50 places in Baseball America’s Top one hundred and nearly 30 places in the MLB. com rankings. (Athletic’s Keith Law, which ranked Dominguez first more conservatively than those other publications, dropped him 12 places to No. 78). He chased out of the domain too often, and his giant figure suddenly looked like a disadvantage rather than a fortress. “It wasn’t the worst,” Dominguez said of his first season. “But I definitely had room to be better. “
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Since then, it has been. Dominguez returned to Low A to start the 2022 season and started slowly, battling the trends of roletazos and the habit of leaving the zone to the tune of an average OPS of Array225 and Array571 in April. Reese, the team’s player progression czar, believes the team is partly the result of inflated expectations placed on the young outfielder. “I don’t think players think enthusiasts need to see them walk 3 times,” Reese said. To deflate the tension that accompanies wrestling, Reese joked with Dominguez that he deserves simply to avoid swinging balls. “Like giving the impression that it’s simple, like you’re not swinging on pitches on the ground,” Reese said. “Suddenly, he started doing it. “
From May until the All-Star break, when he made his back-to-back appearance at the Futures Game, Dominguez broke Array279/. 410/. 480. He participated in 17. 5% of his marble appearances and reduced his at-bats average by nearly 10 runs. A wonderful promotion to High A: Tampa manager Rachel Balkovec tricked Dominguez by calling him first into the room for a teammate’s promotion, as soon as he slowed down. of the defeated in a game won in the season. The hype back.
When Hudson Valley signed an autograph for the fans, the rest of the team had tables clustered together. “And then they had Jasson’s table,” Rumfield said, “and Jasson’s row was outside the stadium. “parking as fans, but the crowd surrounding Dominguez’s car is said to have been so suffocating that the team had to find a place for him at a door next to the clubhouse. “We were all given,” Rumfield said.
Although Dominguez admits to practicing his signature as a child, he still gets used to displaying it so frequently. The key, he says, is not to pay too much attention to it. The same goes for what potential tipsters say about him. Dominguez has a theory about this. ” Whether it’s smart or bad,” he said, “they’ll pass by where the exhibit takes place. “
It has a tendency to be what it is.
It’s simple that Dominguez is still a child.
His teammates and coaches describe him as clumsy and funny. During a recent batting practice in Mesa, Dominguez stopped to wrap a teammate in a tight hug from behind. He has a wry sense of humor, tearing a sliding protective glove from a pocket and throwing it over his shoulder when asked if he wore it when acting out the basics. He also admits that, until earlier this year, he was afraid of slipping headfirst. In spite of everything, he was driven to check it in a game. with Tampa this season. Was I safe?” Yes,” he said in a falsely serious tone, as if the interrogator shouldn’t even have needed to ask.
If Dominguez doesn’t look like a child, it’s because he doesn’t really look like one. It has an index of five feet 10 inches and 190 pounds, but gently pushes two bills. Its body is not so much chiseled as thick and forged. like a rock formation, and his face has the angular fullness of a weightlifter. Yes, he’s been great, even when he was just an amateur, but he’s controlled to become even bigger and more powerful since he entered professional ball.
(But not as big as before. Uninvited to the chosen site, Dominguez spent 2020 in an aunt’s space in New Jersey, banging and running Door Dash with his cousin. That, and posting old videos of an edition carved of himself in the batter cage, without the very important revelation of #latergram. “Someone commented, ‘During COVID, Jasson Dominguez became the Hulk!'” he said. “But actually, I had gained weight. “)
It is this physique, which was once a point in his favor as an amateur, that drives Scouts to remain skeptical. of the lanky locks that signal deals with major league clubs at age 16, Dominguez’s frame doesn’t leave much room for smarter weight. League: Even their most intense runs out of the box seemed sluggish in the fall.
Again, it was a long season. The Yankees propelled Dominguez with the same force, all the way to Double-A for a playoff run at the end of the year and the fall league for the final six weeks of baseball, as the pandemic had deprived him of vital representatives in marble and in the outfield. Dominguez treated him well physically — although his drop numbers were bad, he hit the ball hard — but he also felt the routine for the first time. He said, “and be able to have that stamina. “
He will start next year in Double-A, with a imaginable league debut at least a chance. Although Reese admits that the Yankees have a reputation for being “slow in perspective,” they just blew Dominguez two degrees in the span of a If he proves once again that he’s better than the competition, they won’t hesitate to publicize him.
“I make it hard and do what I can,” he said, “so when the time comes to make the resolution, the other people making the resolution will. “
As for the hype, it is an inescapable fact that the closer Dominguez gets to the primary leagues, the more intense the attention. The query “Will it be good?will be expelled by ‘When will it arrive?'(A 3rd option: “Will it be redeemed?” According to a baseball source, the Yankees unsuccessfully suspended Dominguez as part of a package for Reds starter Luis Castillo at this year’s deadline. ) The two major New York affiliates are a day’s away from the Bronx, and enthusiasts will flock to Somerset or Scranton for a glimpse of the Martian. Our welcome to Dominguez The nickname is sewn into his glove, as well as an alien.
He is the Martian who fell to Earth, in more than one tactic. He’s young and incredibly talented, but he’s already felt the glow of fame and what it’s like to fight underneath. “There’s a lot of excitement” after he signed, plus more than one 16-year-old boy would have to ask him to come in, and admits he “had to be informed to calm down. “— and Dominguez has a habit of handling it. No appeasement is required.
“Not for the time being,” he said. “No pressure. “
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today)