Youth Movement is Underway as Jasson Dominguez is Called Up

The Yankees came very close to sweeping a four-game series in Detroit for the first time since 1926. Alas, it didn’t happen, but that’s OK. The big news is that the youth movement that needs to happen is finally underway. Welcome to all the new subscribers I met in person at Innovative Field this week. Let’s get to it.

I spent two of the last three nights at the ballpark in Rochester hoping to watch the Yankees No. 1 prospect, outfielder Jasson Dominguez, play for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against the Red Wings, but it didn’t quite work out.

Tuesday night I was set up at a table trying to recruit subscribers to the newsletter - grabbed about 20 which was nice - and didn’t really have a view of the action. I wound up seeing only one Dominquez at bat, and he walked without swinging at a pitch. And then Thursday, I was signing up more people - another 15 or so - but Dominquez was gone, on his way to Houston because the Yankees called him up along with catcher Austin Wells.

Oh well, building the readership was worth it, and now you and I will get to watch him whenever we choose because he’ll be on TV as he makes his long-awaited major league debut Friday in Houston.

This has been quite a start to the week for the Yankees. They won a series for the first time in their last 10 tries, taking three of four from the terrible Tigers. But way more important than that, they made some smart decisions regarding the roster.

First, they told Josh Donaldson to get the hell out of town. Finally. They should never, ever, ever have traded for this bum, and it will go down as one of the worst trades of Brian Cashman’s career. Yes, it got Gary Sanchez off the roster, but what a horrible price it cost - $56 million of wasted payroll space on Donaldson who was literally one of the worst hitters in MLB. I never liked him, especially when he was a Blue Jay, and my distaste only grew as he soiled the pinstripes for nearly two years. Good riddance.

Next, they put center fielder Harrison Bader on waivers and Thursday the Reds claimed him. It’s a smart play because they weren’t re-signing Bader as a free agent, they saved a little money, and it opens center field for Dominguez. Bader’s time in New York went exactly the way the rest of his career has gone - excellent defender, barely average hitter, and injury prone.

But unlike Donaldson, I really liked Bader. Loved his energy, his passion, his enthusiasm, and his media friendliness which, as a reporter, is always a nice bonus. All you had to do was see his last interview with the New York media Thursday to understand how good a guy he is and how much it meant for a kid born in the Bronx to play for the Yankees. Unfortunately, outside of his brief and surprising power surge last October, it didn’t work out for him in his hometown, but I love how appreciative he was for the opportunity.

Those moves ultimately created the roster spots that will be filled by Dominguez and Wells who will join the two prospects who were called up a week earlier, Everson Pereira and Oswald Peraza. We’ll see Friday if there are other transactions as the roster can be expanded to 28, but the bottom line is this: The Yankees have officially turned the page on 2023 and they are planning to give these kids a full month of playing time which will hopefully help them as they try to win roster spots in 2024.

Dominguez is the main attraction. I know it’s very early, but so far Peraza and Pereira look completely overmatched at the plate. Peraza is hitting .136 and Pereira .114 and neither player looks like they have the type of star talent the Yankees desperately need.

Dominguez does.

At Double-A Somerset, he was among the Eastern League leaders in runs (1st, 83), walks (1st, 77), hits (2nd, 108), stolen bases (2nd, 37), RBIs (4th, 66), total bases (4th, 176) and on-base percentage (8th, .367). He also hit 15 homers and was Somerset’s team leader in batting average (.254), multi-RBI games (17) and multi-hit games (31).

He went up to Triple-A a couple weeks ago and played only nine games, during which he hit .419 and had a 1.094 OPS with 10 RBI, though no homers. He also stole three bases and played flawless defense. With Bader gone, Dominguez should be given every game in center field the rest of the year.

“I'm in the camp that I think he's going to be a really good player in this league,” Aaron Boone said a few days ago. “He's a really special talent. After getting off to a little bit of a slow start this year in Double-A, he's really played well here over the last few months. He's a guy that obviously impacts the ball and is athletic and can run, but I liked the fact that at a very young age, he really controls the strike zone. Hopefully that's something that, when he does get up here, will really be something that serves him well.”

Well, let’s hope Boone’s evaluation is correct. The Yankees need a young, potential superstar for us to get excited about.

Here are my observations on the four games against the Tigers.

Aug. 28: Yankees 4, Tigers 1

➤ Luis Severino pitched one hell of a game. That makes two very good outings in a row, though the caveat is that they came against the Nationals and Tigers. Still, he looked like pre-injury disaster Sevy with seven shutout innings, five hits, no walks and eight strikeouts. One of the problems he was having is that he wasn’t missing bats but in this game he had 10 swing and miss strikes and 20 called, an indication that the Tigers were flummoxed.

➤ The only big moment in this game came in the bottom of the sixth with the Yankees clinging to a 1-0 lead thanks to a Gleyber Torres double in the fifth that scored Aaron Judge from first. Zack McKinstry ripped his second triple of the game with one out. The Yankees pulled the infield in and Riley Greene hit a shot to short. Anthony Volpe fielded it cleanly, threw home and Kyle Higashioka made a nice pick and tag. And after a single, Sevy struck out Spencer Torkelson to keep it 1-0.

➤ Perhaps inspired by that, Judge and Torres hit back-to-back homers in the seventh and IKF singled in the eighth and came home on a single by Oswaldo Cabrera.

➤ It was a better finish than start for the offense. Tigers starter Reese Olson, who looked like he was 15 years old but was pitching like Nolan Ryan, recorded his first eight outs by strikeout. Just crazy. However, he only made it to the fifth inning because he needed so many pitches with all those strikeouts plus four walks, so the Torres RBI double was his last batter and that cost him the loss.

➤ Detroit’s only run came in the ninth, an Akil Baddoo home run off Clay Holmes. That’s four times in his last five outings where Holmes has given up a run.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 29: Yankees 4, Tigers 2

➤ What’s this? A winning streak? For the first time since Aug. 2-3 the Yankees won back-to-back games and like Monday, pitching carried the night, buoyed by a few long balls.

➤ Opener Michael King was excellent with four scoreless, three-hit innings, and he was followed by Jhony Brito who pitched 3.1 innings allowing no runs on two hits and two walks. Wandy Peralta got a couple outs, and then in the ninth, Holmes proved problematic again as he was scored on for the fifth time in his last six outings. Handed a 4-0 lead, Holmes gave up two runs on two hits and a walk and had to face Javier Baez as the tying run. Thankfully he struck out the free-swinging Baez to end the game.

➤ This is proving to be an interesting period for King. The Yankees have now started him three times in the last three weeks and this was his longest outing of the season at four innings and 61 pitches. He came up through the system as a starting pitcher, so if this experiment goes well, maybe King will be in the running for a rotation spot in 2024. “First and foremost, he’s confident,” Boone said. “He’s got a great disposition about him. He kind of has that starter look to him and way about him, and he's done it most of his life. It’s just a matter of, ‘Does it translate over the long haul?’ He’s getting more and more opportunities, and you’ve got to be excited about what you’re seeing.”

➤ As they did Monday, Torres and Higashioka homered, and Volpe tacked on what proved to be an important insurance with a solo homer in the ninth. The other run came in the sixth when the Yankees loaded the bases and with Bader at the plate - his head probably still spinning over finding out that he was on waivers - Tigers catcher Carson Kelly’s passed ball allowed Judge to score.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 30: Yankees 6, Tigers 2

➤ What is happening here? Three straight wins, the first time that has happened since July 21-23 when they swept another terrible team, the Royals, which also happened to be the last series win. Thus, the streak of 10 straight non-winning series comes to an end. Hallelujah.

➤ The Tigers went with a bullpen game and the Yankees jumped all over opener Brendan White. With two outs Torres walked, stole second and scored on a Stanton single. Volpe was hit by a pitch, Bader singled to load the bases - in what turned out to be his final hit as a Yankee - and Pereira was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Then Peraza popped up to kill the inning.

➤ Not tacking on in the first didn’t matter because after that, it was a series of solo homers by LeMahieu, Torres and Stanton and an RBI single by Pereira that rounded out the scoring. This gave the Yankees eight home runs in the first three games, and all eight were solo, furthering an issue they’ve had all season where they can’t get enough men on base to do real damage when they slug. They now have 190 home runs as a team, and 117 have come with the bases empty. That’s insane.

➤ The Yankees pitching was strong for a third night in a row, though this was no surprise with Gerrit Cole on the hill. He gave up a pair of solo homers in six innings and just two other hits and two walks while striking out seven. And then Ian Hamilton pitched the rare three-inning save, retiring nine of the 10 men he faced, spoiled only by a walk while striking out five. He continues to be one of the bright spots in this season.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 31: Tigers 4, Yankees 3 (10)

➤ I was talking to my father about this the other night. The last thing we Yankees fans should be rooting for is a red-hot September because that would be counterproductive to the ultimate hopes and dreams that we have, that of Hal Steinbrenner making drastic changes in the organization. This season has been a disaster by every measure, and we don’t need a good month to essentially serve as lipstick on a pig and fool tone deaf Hal into thinking all is well and to remain with the status quo. It’s clear that Cashman, the head of the snake, is staying attached, but Hal must give him the directive to get rid of Boone and many others in the organizational structure, especially those in charge of scouting and analytics.

➤ That’s why I was a little pissed when, with the Yankees down to their last out and trailing 3-0, Volpe hit a stunning three-run homer that just cleared the right-field wall inside the foul pole. It was his 20th of the year, making him the first Yankees rookie to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases in the same season. He’s also just the third rookie shortstop, and 15th rookie overall to achieve that.

➤ The last time the Yankees hit a home run to tie a game when they were down to their last out was Stanton in the Field of Dreams game in Iowa back in 2021 against the White Sox. Volpe’s probably should have never happened, though. Torres hit a grounder to short that would have been a game-ending double play, but Tigers shortstop Zack Short bobbled it causing second baseman Andy Ibanez’s relay throw to first to be a step too late. Volpe then came up and extended the game.

➤ However, Volpe’s heroics were wasted. The Yankees were unable to move their free runner off second base in the 10th which was pretty on brand for their entire season, and then in the bottom half, what comes around goes around. Torres made one of his knucklehead errors by throwing away a double play ball and that allowed the Tigers free runner to score the winning run.

➤ The Volpe homer took Clarke Schmidt off the hook for the loss. Schmidt didn’t pitch poorly, but he fell apart in the fifth and gave up three runs. The same issues for him, as usual. He struggled to put hitters’ away, especially in that inning, and it burned him. He gave up a leadoff homer to Short, then he walked Kelly, gave up an RBI single to Greene, a single to Ibanez and then an RBI single to Kerry Carpenter that made it 3-0 and ended his day. This was the eighth start this year where Schmidt got zero runs of support, tied for the most in MLB.

➤ The bullpen work of Keynan Middleton, Tommy Kahnle, Albert Abreu and Clay Holmes kept the Yankees in it until Volpe came through, but Jonathan Loaisiga suffered the undeserved loss when Torres threw the ball away.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ Aug. 30, 1986: If we think the 2023 Yankees roster is populated by old, declining players, it had nothing on the 1986 Yankees, particularly on this day at the Kingdome in Seattle.

The Yankees trotted out 43-year-old Tommy John and 41-year-old Joe Niekro for a doubleheader against the Mariners and they became the first pitchers of at least 40 years of age to start both ends of a twinbill for the same team. It was the first time this happened since Sept. 13, 1933 when the Chicago White Sox started Sad Sam Jones (41) and Red Faber (44) against the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park.

John pitched all eight innings of the Yankees 1-0 loss, his first complete game in two years. He gave up eight hits and a walk, but he also allowed the only run of the game. In the eighth, Jim Presley delivered a one-out RBI single to give Seattle the victory.

Niekro lasted only five innings in the nightcap, but he got credit for the Yankees’ 3-0 triumph because relievers Rod Scurry and Dave Righetti completed the shutout, and Don Mattingly produced the only run the Yankees needed with a solo homer in the fourth.

More notable for Mattingly, the Yankees’ left-handed first baseman, is that he started both games at third base, playing five innings in the opener and eight in the nightcap. He totaled five assists, a putout and one throwing error with regular third baseman Mike Pagliarulo out with an injury.

The night before, Mattingly made his debut at third (these were the only three games he played there in his career) because of some pinch-hitting moves made by manager Lou Piniella. Mattingly had six assists and that’s why Piniella played him at third in the doubleheader.

“It’s because of the way he played last night, plus, if we’re going to go that way when we’re behind, we might as well start with our best offensive club and switch to defense,” Piniella said. “Until he proves he can’t do it, why worry about it? It’s not like we’re five games in front and trying to hold on.”

Gotta love a manager who just told it like it is, unlike Boone and today’s managers who talk like they’re reading from a script filled with cliches.

Down to the House of Horrors the Yankees go for a three-game set at Minute Maid Park against the intolerable Astros. If Dominguez and Wells are in the starting lineup Friday, that’s a hell of a spot to make their MLB debuts.

We still hate the Astros, right? Even in a season when it doesn’t matter. Most of the same guys that we loathe are still there making life miserable for other teams the way they always do for the Yankees. I don’t need to list the names, just know that all of them are primed for the stretch run and if I had to choose which team is going to win out in that great AL West battle, it’s these guys.

One game separates the first-place Mariners and Astros and the second-place Rangers, and it’s hard to bet against the team that has pretty much owned the division, and the American League, for half a decade.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Friday at 8:10 on Amazon Prime it’s Carlos Rodon (5.97 ERA) against Justin Verlander (3.06); Saturday at 7:10 on YES it’s Luis Severino (6.64) against Hunter Brown (4.47); and Sunday at 7:10 on ESPN it’s Michael King (2.96) against Cristian Javier (4.66).