About Spring Training: Meanderings of My Mind

About Spring Training: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

March 23, 2026

***

The Yankees were eliminated from the postseason in the ALDS last season. Spring Training is just about over. The games are being played daily and the regulars are playing deeper into those games. Opening Day is three days away as I write this. This will be my last regularly scheduled Meanderings of My Mind article.  Moving forward, I will write them on off-days. Since I don't have any games to recap, I will now move from topic to topic with unbridled enthusiasm like a toddler on an Easter egg hunt.  

·       As I and many others predicted, Jasson Dominguez has been demoted to Scranton. He will begin the season in AAA, along with Spencer Jones. Randal Grichuk, who is batting .105, made the team. Hallelujah. (As an aside, I have a recording on my phone of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, which I play sarcastically whenever my wife does something rather ordinary. It helps keep a spark in our marriage.) Perhaps the Yankees can play that every time Grichuk takes the field. Meanwhile, as I am writing this, Trent Grisham is batting .179 for the spring. Dominguez did every single thing the Yankees asked him to do. He improved his right-handed hitting and his defense. For the spring, he is batting .349 with three home runs, 10 RBI and 3 stolen bases. Remember, he was in the Major Leagues all of 2025, with the same roster. He has now been banished to Scranton. Is it fair? No, it is not. Is it based on merit? No, it is not. Is it the best move for the Yankees as a team to have Dominguez in Scranton? No, I don't believe it is. I'm sure that if Aaron Boone had been creative, well, let's just stop right there. Is it surprising that the Yankee sent Dominguez to the minor leagues? Absolutely not. For those of you who say the Yankees are interested in winning now and not developing players, I would suggest that Dominguez gives them a better chance to win than Grichuk or Grisham while still developing as a player. Let me ask you this? Who has a bigger upside, Jasson Dominguez or Randal Grichuk? Who has a better upside, Jasson Dominguez or Trent Grisham? The answer to both of those questions is clearly Dominguez. Yet, he will be eating scrapple and eggs in Scranton while Grisham and Grichuk toil away in the Bronx. Is it surprising that the Yankees sent Dominguez to the minor leagues? Absolutely not. I and many others predicted this weeks ago. So, here we are. With the way the Yankees operate and how stubborn both Boone and Cashman usually are, I anticipate that it would take a long period of struggle from Grichuk and Grisham to have Dominguez and or Spencer Jones recalled. However, if Grisham in particular gets off to a slow start, you can expect a huge cry from the fans and the media for Dominguez to be recalled. That should make things interesting.

·       My son Jack graduated from Basic Training last week and is now in his Area of Individual Training, (AIT) in Missouri. He is stationed at Fort Leonard Wood. The people who are stationed there refer to it as “Fort Lost in the Woods”. I explained to my son who Leonard Wood was and that he was in fact Theodore Roosevelt's superior officer during the Spanish American War and commanded the Rough Riders. He was later the Army Chief of Staff. He was a rather interesting fellow and actually reprimanded Theodore Roosevelt once. Surprisingly, he was not thrashed for doing so. I told my son that he could impress his officers with his new tidbits of knowledge about Leonard Wood. So far, my son is doing very well.

·       At this point, the Yankees roster appears to be set. Oswaldo Cabrera has been sent to Scranton along with Dominguez and Spencer Jones. The rationale given by the Yankees is that Cabrera can continue to recover from his injury. That is true but I don't know at what point if any he will be brought back up. However, I can guarantee that the moment Anthony Volpe is ready, he will return to the Major Leagues and shove Jose Caballero out of the starting lineup. It is rather amazing to compare the way the Yankees have treated Anthony Volpe as compared to the way they have treated Jasson Dominguez. I think that if you realistically look at both players, Dominguez has the far greater potential and actually, had a better season in his first full season than Volpe did. Yet, he will remain in Scranton, and I guarantee that Volpe will return to the Major Leagues before Dominguez, barring injury to one of the outfielders or Giancarlo Stanton.

·       In a shocking development, my oven died again for at least the fourth time in the two years that I have lived here. I believe it is at least five or six, but I haven't had the time to check all my emails and so forth to get an accurate count. Naturally, I called the management office on Wednesday night after my wife's attempt to cook a lovely dinner in the oven was thwarted by a beeping oven and the flashing of F9 on the panel. Amazingly, they sent the repairman out on Thursday. I advised him that I wanted a new oven because at this point there seemed to be no point in fixing it yet again only to have it conk out in a couple of months. He explained the brilliant theory employed by the management office wherein they carefully weigh the cost of repairing an appliance multiple times against the cost of acquiring a new one. At this point, my oven is still tilting the ledger toward repairs. Naturally, I sent a scathing e-mail to the management company. I explained that I don't think it's realistic for an oven to die four or five times in a two-year period and they do. So, perhaps I should consult the local Housing Authority to see what they think. The management company responded by playing the victim and saying that they have done everything that could be reasonably expected of them in this situation. I asked them if they to answer one simple question, if they thought it was realistic to have an appliance breakdown at least five times in two years without being replaced. Surprisingly, I received a phone call on Saturday while I was eating breakfast. It was the appliance company, informing me they were on their way with yet another used stove to replace the used stove that I currently have.  Of course, it turned into an adventure. The first used stove that they delivered arrived with parts missing and when they lit the burners, the right rear burner burned nicely for a moment or two and then sent a giant ball of flame into the air. I believe my eyebrows should grow back rather quickly. Naturally, they removed that stove. They came back with another one that they could not fit into the space between where the previous stove had been. Surprisingly, it was the same size. Don't ask me why they couldn't get it in. One of them decided that pushing the entire counter which was bolted to the wall would be effective. It was not. Finally, the new stove was in position. Everything worked, until they left of course. Then the back right burner stopped working. I called them and they told me that someone would be out on Tuesday because they are closed on Monday, to fix the situation in some fashion. Well, at least the three burners that I have work reasonably well. I haven't tried the oven yet.

·       The Yankees roster for the 2026 appears to be set, with the exception of the final bullpen pieces. It is unclear if Cade Winquest will make the team or will be returned to the Cardinals. If he does make the team, I would not anticipate that he stays there very long. Again, the construction of the pitching staff boggles the mind as neither Elmer Rodriguez nor Carlos Lagrange made the team. They will be in Scranton alongside Spencer Jones, Jasson Dominguez, and Oswaldo Cabrera. Why do I have a feeling that the Scranton team may be better than the one in the Bronx? There used to be a concept and practice, particularly with the Yankees, that if a youngster really did well in spring training, they could earn a spot on the Major League roster. They did it with Anthony Volpe who has regressed ever since then. Yet this season, Jones, Rodriguez, and LaGrange were all dominant performers. None of them made the team. Even worse, Dominguez had a spectacular Spring Training, and he not only didn't win a roster spot, but he also lost one. He outperformed all the potential competitors for that roster spot, and he still lost it. It boggles the mind.

·       I distinctly remember a Sports Illustrated article written in 1985 regarding the Kansas City Royals. The Article described Steve Balboni, who led the team in home runs that year and won a World Series ring as having “a look of impending doom on his face at all times”. A picture of Balboni's face should be the official poster to represent the 2026 New York Yankees. I feel that sums things up very nicely.