About the Off-Season: Coming Out of Leftfield

About the Off-Season: Coming Out of Leftfield

By Tim Kabel

October 23, 2025

***

As the 2025 postseason rolls on without the Yankees, I will continue taking stock. It is time to evaluate what went wrong this season and what needs to happen going into next season. I started by addressing the manager. I then considered players on the current roster who will be free agents or who have options. Now, I am looking at the Yankees position by position. Today I will turn to leftfield.

In 2025, the primary leftfielders for the New York Yankees were Jasson Dominguez and Cody Bellinger. Austin Slater, who was acquired at the trade deadline, played a few games in the outfield but did not make the postseason roster and will now fade into oblivion. That trade will be recognized as one that should not have been made. 

Cody Bellinger also played centerfield until the surprising emergence of Trent Grisham, who put up not only a career year, but essentially a whole career last year. I will discuss Trent Grisham more when I turn my gaze to centerfield. However, Cody Bellinger will be a free agent once he officially opts out of his contract and hits the market. He and the Yankees will have decisions to make. It seems that he enjoyed his time as a Yankee and may be open to returning but it is unclear what his role would be. 

Jasson Dominguez had a fine season, but not a spectacular one. He batted .257 for the season with ten home runs and 47 RBI. However, he only played 123 games and essentially disappeared down the stretch. When he did play, he was fine. He stole 23 bases out of 28 attempts. He will not be 23 years old until next February. A lot was made of his superiority as a left-handed hitter, but Michael Kay and others made the point later in the season that his right-handed batting was improving when he had more opportunities to do so. His fielding was also improving, and he worked very hard at it. Reportedly, he will be playing winter ball, and will play leftfield while doing so.

I think that if Dominguez is the regular leftfielder in 2026, he will have a very good year. His power numbers will likely improve. His fielding should improve as well based on repetition and hard work. Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone both stated that he should be getting a lot more playing time in 2026.  

Dominguez did bat leadoff on occasion in 2025. That is a role he could potentially fill next year. A lot depends on which players the Yankees acquire. I think Dominguez could be an above average leadoff hitter if he fills that role. If Dominguez is a regular player for the Yankees in 2026, it would be realistic to expect improvement and growth in all areas. It was not that he faded down the stretch. It was that he didn't play. Remember, he had one at bat in the postseason in the final game against the Blue Jays, pinch hitting for Anthony Volpe. He mashed a double and scored a run.

There is a lot of potential and promise in Jasson Dominguez. When he was given an opportunity to play in 2025, he demonstrated that and began to fulfill it. The issue was that Aaron Boone frequently yanked him out of the lineup willy-nilly, which did nothing for his growth and development. Amazingly, it did not seem to affect his attitude or confidence. I suspect that most rookies if given one at bat in the postseason in the final game in the 9th inning, would have meekly grounded out or possibly struck out. The fact that he was in there swinging hard and hit a solid double, speaks volumes.

The issue will be whether Boone gives Dominguez opportunities to play, grow, and develop. We all know that Aaron Boone is not very good at developing young players. However, sometimes his hand is forced. Due to an injury to Giancarlo Stanton, Ben Rice was given an opportunity to play and ran with it. The season that Ben Rice put up in 2024 was not nearly as good as the season Jasson Dominguez posted in 2025. The point being that if Rice could flourish with an opportunity at full-time play in 2025, it is not unreasonable to expect that Dominguez could do the same thing in 2026. I realize they are different players, but Dominguez did show a lot of promise and deserves an opportunity to play full-time. The fact that the manager is not great at developing young players (that's putting it nicely) should not automatically relegate Dominguez to the bench.

Jasson Dominguez needs to be the starting leftfielder for the Yankees in 2026.