TAMPA – Aaron Boone said on the first day of camp, “If you can play in the outfield at Grapefruitreug, you're in a pretty good place.”
Through two games on the left field this spring, the scoreboards are Grapefruit Treegue 1 and Jasson Domínguez 1.
The Yankees gave Dominguez a long runway this spring, making a full-time transition from center field to left field after his second half of the season experiments went wrong last year.
And while Friday in his first game was uneventful, Sunday was more challenging, courtesy of the elements.
Dominguez lost the ball under the sun during the Yankees' 4-0 defeat to the Tigers at Stein Brenner Field, then took an inefficient route and then another ball in the gap Boone said that he didn't give him the best chance to reach. Either way, it must have been a hit.
“There's no reason why he shouldn't be able to handle the left field,” Boone said after the game. “We like what we saw these first few weeks.”
Since he arrived in Tampa, Dominguez has been working with outfield coach Louis Rojas to become more comfortable on the left field, with the Yankees planning to use Cody Bellinger regularly at the center field. It's there.
Boone on Sunday will be coming out of the bench to play center field from the bench (where he won the gold gloves), so he doesn't want Dominguez to the left, so he's 1 He said he prefers to keep it in two places. .
So Boone isn't necessarily planning flip-floping Dominguez and Bellinger this spring.
“I want to give it a perfect runway [Domínguez] He does all his job,” Boone said. “If I have to make a decision late, I'm not always worried about getting my stomach going. I don't want to do that with Jackson.”
Instead, the Yankees want to continue running Dominguez on the left field.
“He's working really hard,” Rojas said. “We've been trying to simulate a lot of what you're going to get, especially in spring training. There's a lot of stuff here. The winds are blowing in Florida, and the high sky in Florida. Put it in and get the Florida sun. There are a lot of factors that will be thrown at you right away, but we know he knows he'll get it for the past two or three weeks. I tried to simulate it over and over. Today he set the sun on.”
Dominguez's three innings begin with Cole Keith hooking a sinking line drive from Hao Yu Lee's bat before he slides the ball to leave that left ball lost in the sun. I did.
He quickly recovered after the ball fell, found it and fired it at Anthony Volpe.
In the fourth inning, Jace John hit the ball into the gap on the left center field.
Domínguez had a long way to go to run before falling a few feet behind, but Rojas noticed some coaching points in the play.
“When I saw it live, it looked like he had escaped a bit from his running shape towards the end,” Rojas said. “He hanged his gloves, but some of the things we're talking about could probably be one or two steps that get closer to the ball. Please break down and talk. We're going to have to. I'm going to continue learning the position whether he plays or not. … He has great tools and we really think he'll succeed in that position.”
I think so too about his teammates.
“His attention to detail continues to mature based on me catching glimpses of him through his work here and there,” Gerrit Cole said. “He's matured and he's getting better. The fact that he's unshakable with his approach through so much of what he's going through is what I feel confident about.”
