HOUSTON — The Yankees did not have to be assured immediately that they had gambled on the right kind of person, but it helped.
In July 2019, at 16 years old, Jasson Dominguez signed a contract that included a franchise-record, $5.1 million signing bonus for an international free agent, a bet on the player and his character.
In the hours afterward, Dominguez returned to Ivan Noboa’s Baseball Dreams Academy, where he had trained, and gave away the majority of his equipment to the kids he was leaving behind. It was one more sign to Yankees director of international scouting Donny Rowland that Dominguez had everything the club was looking for in a player.
“It’s very rare to see that combination,” Rowland said over the phone. “You look at tools, athleticism, makeup, performance as an amateur — and the analytical data backed up everything. He checked every box.”
Dominguez’s dream came true on Friday, when he went 1-for-4 with a home run in his major league debut at Minute Maid Park, and it was special for the personnel who scouted him, too.
Now 20, Dominguez might be the most hyped Yankees prospect of all time, a switch-hitting center fielder who has been compared to Mickey Mantle.
The legend, Rowland said, began during a simulated game in the Dominican Republic when Dominguez was “maybe 14.” Rowland watched and tried to keep a straight face, so as not to betray his leanings to rival scouts in attendance, as Dominguez crushed home runs from both sides of the plate, showed excellent speed and played like no 14-year-old he had seen.
“It was difficult to stop from laughing under my breath and tipping my hand,” Rowland said before the Yankees’ 6-2 win over the Astros. “It was kind of like: Are you kidding me? At that age, to have that kind of tools. I’ve never seen that kind of tools for someone that age before.”
He asked a couple of Yankees scouts whether they had seen such a performance from Dominguez and was told by one, “I’ve actually seen him a little better.”
Thus began an information-gathering process that included Rowland watching the teenager play on at least 30 different occasions, ensuring what he was seeing was real.
And thus began the process of discovering the type of person the young Dominguez was becoming. His makeup was “impeccable,” Rowland said, and it had to be to keep the comparisons and the hype and the money from going to his head.
The Yankees used about 90 percent of their international pool money on Dominguez, choosing one potential superstar over a deeper class that could have produced dozens of lottery tickets. It was a rarity for the organization at the time, but has become a recent trend. The Yankees splurged for $4 million on shortstop Roderick Arias in 2022 and $4.4 million on outfielder Brando Mayea this year.
The Yankees, who routinely have among the lowest bonus pools, still fight to the top of the market.
“There’s a player every now and then that jumps out as the clear No. 1 player in the market,” Rowland said. “There’s no reason for us not to get the best player in the market. … Jasson made it very easy for us to step up.”
They stepped up and signed Dominguez, whose nickname the club does not want credit for.
After the signing, “Many teams walked up to me and said, ‘You got to be kidding me,’ ” Rowland said. “One of the guys from a team said, ‘You got The Martian — the guy from Mars.’ ”