Under The Knife 2/14/24
Valentine's Injuries
Nothing says love like injuries, right? I don’t know why I’ve never pushed UTK as the perfect Valentine’s gift … oh well, happy happy to all who celebrate. Let’s get right to it:
JASSON DOMINGUEZ, OF NYY (sprained elbow/rehab)
Jasson Dominguez is starting off spring training with big question marks about, well, everything. Five months post-elbow reconstruction with InternalBrace, Dominguez is doing drills with outfielders. This isn’t full go and there’s still no word about hitting, though there are rumors he’s begun that as well. If we compare Dominguez’s timeline to Shohei Ohtani (see below), it’s very similar.
The biggest question mark is whether the Yankees will push Giancarlo Stanton out of the DH slot, even for a short period of time - think Bryce Harper last year - to get Dominguez’s bat back. The Yankees have been noncommittal about whether Dominguez would even DH in the minors to start the season. If they’re committed to him having to be in the outfield upon his return, then the mid-season mark or even later is possible.
The Yankees roster just doesn’t make sense. Alex Verdugo isn’t going to hold Dominguez back when he’s healthy, but if Anthony Rizzo is healthy again after last year’s lingering and problematic concussion, there’s too many pieces for Aaron Boone to shift around. This is one where trading from strength is the move, but the Yankees really haven’t done that. Instead, even the Juan Soto deal doesn’t answer questions in the long term. Flipping Verdugo or one of the younger, controllable players midseason makes sense, but this implies that Verdugo OF/Stanton DH is more valuable than Stanton OF/Dominguez DH. I get the defensive hit, but that can be adjusted for in a number of ways.
Still, the most likely path involves some Triple-A time for Dominguez and the best path would be an aggressive rehab plan that gets him on the field, if that’s what’s really necessary. The promise of the InternalBrace is that it reduces the risk early in the process, but teams have been loathe to use that as this surgery becomes more routine at high levels.
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