MLB: Jasson Domínguez's fielding remains precarious

Even though the balls he hits for home runs send them flying toward the orbit of the planet Mars, Jasson Dominguez still plays a precarious defense that forces him to keep his feet on the ground.

And the last performance of "The Martian" left much to be desired when in a game against Detroit, in the third inning he lost the route of a fly ball that he had almost caught from Colt Keith in the sun, and in the following inning he did not catch a line drive that had reached him, and that became a run-scoring double for Andy Ibañez.

This was the first of the hits that Domínguez could not handle.

The Yankees' trust in him to be the starting left fielder from Opening Day of the 2025 season is a double-edged sword, since at the same time it is a requirement that he must try to do things as well as possible in that position.

"There's no reason he can't handle left field," manager Aaron Boone said when asked about Dominguez's two errors. "We've liked what we've seen from him these first few weeks," the Yankees manager said, confident that the situation will be overcome.

This was the situation with the ball he dropped in the fourth inning.

Luis Rojas supports him

The team's outfield coach, Dominican Luis Rojas , is also helping him improve.

"(On the second hit), it seems like he moved away from the ball right at the end of the reading of the hit. Those are things that we have talked about, that in that part, the key is to be one or two steps closer to the ball," Rojas said.

Last September, the team placed "El Marciano" in left field but due to his defensive problems, Alex Verdugo remained in the position.

Rojas and Dominguez are working on aspects such as fielding routines, angles for making cuts, how to handle hits that go to the wall, slides, and shots to the bases.

Jasson Dominguez had a .957 fielding average after playing just 13 games in left field last year. The MLB -wide fielding average for that position in 2024 was .987.

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