Aaron Boone’s and Brian Cashman’s surprising faith in Alex Verdugo led to Yankees’ divisive Jasson Dominguez decision

If Alex Verdugo isn’t running out routine grounders because he’s “beat up,” as Aaron Boone says, that’s yet another reason to call up top outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez.

The decision to keep the uber-talented Dominguez at Triple-A beyond the Sept. 1 roster expansion date confounds many (including some Yankees people). And for most, word that it was made because GM Brian Cashman and Boone continue to have faith in Verdugo doesn’t make it very much better.

Boone mentioned a pre-September “conversation” among Yankees higher-ups about whether to promote Dominguez, and insiders say it was a very spirited dialogue, with multiple executives strongly arguing for promotion, obviously unsuccessfully.

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It isn’t that Cashman and Boone aren’t huge fans of Dominguez, who’s hitting .310 with an .870 OPS in the minors. They are. The Martian was held out of trade talks for Blake Snell and even for Juan Soto.

The issue is Cashman and Boone seem to have surprising, outsized confidence in Verdugo. Recall that Boone advocated for Verdugo for more than a year before he was acquired for reliever Greg Weissert and two minor leaguers. I wrote June 15 that the Yankees got the better of this deal, but with 85% of his contracted tenure played now, I’ll admit I was quick to judge.

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Though Verdugo has played an excellent left field, he has far underperformed expectations offensively — and nearly everyone in MLB lately — with a .547 OPS since June 15 (third worst among players with 200 plate appearances) and .655 overall. He recently told Randy Miller of the Newark Star-Ledger that an allergy to his batting gloves may have been hindering him, and maybe this is all part of the “Verdugo experience” we’ve heard about.

The slugger Dominguez carries the potential to make a scary lineup even scarier. The return of Giancarlo Stanton and prescient deadline pickup of Jazz Chisholm Jr. lengthened what at times degenerated into a two-superstar lineup, but Dominguez makes it a potential Murderer’s Row.

Dominguez should be up. But in the meantime, a .650 OPS hitter needs to run out grounders.

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