Yankees Announce Unusual Jasson Domínguez Decision Before Rockies Game

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The Yankees announced an unusual decision involving Jasson Domínguez ahead of their game against the Colorado Rockies.

The New York Yankees will play for a sweep of the Colorado Rockies at Yankee Stadium Thursday night, and have a chance to put additional distance between themselves and the idle Boston Red Sox in the American League wild-card race.

With the game hours away, the Yankees announced a decision involving their former No. 1 prospect.

The Yankees announced that Jasson Domínguez is batting third Thursday night against the Rockies at Yankee Stadium, a lineup assignment that has been almost foreign territory during his young major league career.

The Yankees’ switch-hitting outfielder, who is slated to start the game in right field, is making just his 20th career appearance in the No. 3 spot across 206 regular-season games. He has spent far more of his time lower in the order, usually fifth through seventh.

Aaron Judge is not in Thursday’s lineup after starting the previous two games in his return from a broken rib. Manager Aaron Boone has been building Judge back into game action without a minor-league rehab assignment, a process that began Tuesday when the captain returned after 100 days away, as the New York Post detailed.

That left a hole in the Yankees’ familiar third spot. Boone filled it with Domínguez.

New York’s official lineup has Ben Rice leading off at DH, Cody Bellinger second in left, Domínguez third in right, Luis García Jr. fourth at first base and Spencer Jones fifth in center. Max Fried starts against Colorado right-hander Ryan Feltner, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET, according to the Yankees’ Thursday lineup and pitching listing.

Why Domínguez is Hitting Third

There does not appear to be a public explanation from manager Aaron Boone specifically addressing the third-slot decision. But the rest-day, matchup and roster context is plain enough.

Judge is being managed after a two-game return. Trent Grisham is on the injured list with a hamstring strain, while Jazz Chisholm Jr. is also unavailable. Domínguez was recalled Sept. 5 when Grisham went down, as MLB Trade Rumors reported.

Feltner throws right-handed. Domínguez, a switch-hitter, will bat left-handed against him, with lefty-swinging Rice and Bellinger ahead of him and García behind him. Boone has put the available left-handed bats together rather than using Domínguez in the sixth or seventh spot he occupied as recently as Sunday in San Diego.

Domínguez went 1-for-4 against the Padres on Sept. 6, then entered Wednesday’s win over Colorado as Judge’s eighth-inning pinch-runner and remained in right field.

A Season of Stops and Starts

Domínguez entered Thursday batting .229 with six home runs, 12 doubles, 14 RBIs and seven steals in 205 at-bats. His .644 OPS and 78 OPS+ are well below the .257/.331/.388 line he posted across 123 games in 2025.

The Yankees optioned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre late in spring training despite a .325 average and three homers in 45 preseason plate appearances. He returned in late April after Giancarlo Stanton landed on the injured list, then crashed into the left-field wall against Texas on May 7 and suffered a low-grade AC joint sprain in his left shoulder. He began a rehab assignment in June, returned June 13, and was optioned again Aug. 4 amid the club’s trade-deadline additions and Jones’ longer audition.

At Scranton, Domínguez hit .306/.404/.471 with three homers in 99 plate appearances while cutting his strikeout rate to 15.2 percent, according to reports on his Triple-A production and roster moves.

The 23-year-old from Esperanza, Dominican Republic, signed with New York for a franchise-record $5.1 million international bonus in July 2019. “The Martian” made his major league debut in 2023 and homered off Justin Verlander in his first at-bat.

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