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Try it freeCLEARWATER, Fla. — Yankees manager Aaron Boone pledged to give Jasson Domínguez a “full runway” this spring to learn left field.
It is still very early, but Domínguez might need all the space he can get before liftoff.
In his fourth spring training game, “The Martian” experienced his second adventure in left field as he adjusts to a position that haunted him last September and will require a learning curve.
On Thursday, Domínguez could not finish off a tough play, a deep drive going in and out of his glove on what became a double from Edmundo Sosa.
In the third inning, Sosa crushed one that Domínguez chased with his back to the plate.
He reached the warning track on the run and might have misjudged the ball’s trajectory, leaving his feet with a small hop that was not needed before he reached the wall.
A mid-air Domínguez tried to scoop the ball out of the air, and it deflected off his glove and onto the track.
“I got a good route. I jumped to catch it,” Domínguez said after the 7-7 tie with the Phillies at BayCare Ballpark. “I reached for it. The ball touched my glove, and it came out.”
The play was not routine and was not an error, but it was a play that the Yankees will hope he can make in late March presuming Domínguez is, as expected, the Opening Day left fielder.
“That’s about as tough a play as you’re going to have,” Boone said. “I guess it’s always a story every one that JD has, but that one’s top-spinning over your head, bullet, tough play.
“So we’ll look at it. We still got work to do, obviously, but that’s about as tough of a chance as you’re going to have.”
Every chance Domínguez has will be scrutinized after he struggled in left field last September, which resulted in the Yankees sticking with Alex Verdugo at the position for the postseason.
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The Yankees let Verdugo walk in free agency and have not signed a replacement, hoping Domínguez can use six weeks of spring training to adapt to the position with Cody Bellinger assuming center field.
A top prospect who has been hyped to the moon (or Mars) since signing, Domínguez is a natural center fielder with all of the physical tools.
“He’s a tremendous athlete,” said Carlos Rodón, who started Thursday. “I think he has all the tools to become an elite defender. Now, I think that’s something that could take time.”
In Domínguez’s second Grapefruit League game, he lost a fly ball in the sun on one instance and could not reach a gapper to left-center field in another tough (but perhaps catchable) play.
The Yankees do not have an obvious left-field answer if Domínguez is not the answer, with fourth outfielder Trent Grisham, Oswaldo Cabrera (who is in the third-base competition) and perhaps prospect Everson Pereira on the roster as options.
With such a small sample size, Domínguez’s comfort level is probably more important than the results at this stage.
“I’ve been feeling better, but it’s still definitely something I’m working on,” the 22-year-old said. “Obviously, you want to make every play, but it’s a process.”