{"id":112705,"date":"2026-01-22T20:31:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=112705"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:31:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:31:59","slug":"yankees-bellinger-reunion-dominguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/22\/yankees-bellinger-reunion-dominguez\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Reunion With Bellinger Spells Bad News For Former Top Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

The long saga of negotiations between Cody Bellinger and the New York Yankees has finally ended after months and months of negotiations. Bellinger’s deal<\/a>, announced on Wednesday, spans 5 years and is worth $162.5 million. The Yankees are certainly happy to retain Bellinger, who was one of their most valuable players both on offense and in the field last year. Someone who probably isn\u2019t too happy, however, is Jasson Dom\u00ednguez.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yankees’ Reunion With Bellinger Spells Bad News For Former Top Prospect<\/h2>\n

With Trent Grisham also returning on the qualifying offer<\/a>, New York is running back the same set of outfielders from last season. Bellinger, who took over primary duties in left field once Grisham earned the center field job, is all but guaranteed to return to left. That leaves the 22-year-old Dom\u00ednguez, who began last season as the starting left fielder, with virtually no place to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back On The Bench<\/h3>\n

Sure, when he was in the lineup, Dom\u00ednguez was not the pulverizing prospect that scouts promised him to be. After all, for a rookie touted as \u201cthe Martian\u201d, a .257\/.331\/.388 slash line isn\u2019t all that impressive. However, it\u2019s important to remember that even (most) superstars need time to develop, even as they enter the Major Leagues. The thing is, though, that most of these superstars improve through experience and consistent playing time. Dom\u00ednguez has had neither in his young career.<\/span><\/p>\n

Letting a veteran take the reins while the younger player, who is more dynamic but less experienced, is usually good for teams in the short term, but it has serious ramifications for the young player down the line. With Bellinger coming back to the Bronx, Dom\u00ednguez now faces another year of sitting on the bench and starting just a handful of games. This will not only slow his growth but may even dent his potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Uneven Splits<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s also important to note that Dom\u00ednguez actually put up solid numbers last year<\/a>, at least at the plate (his defensive skills could certainly use improvement). Besides his .719 OPS (101 OPS+), the Martian hit 10 homers and drove in 47 runs, also stealing 23 bases, which was 3rd amongst all qualified rookies. The caveat is that he hits much better against right-handed pitching, with an OPS well below .600 against southpaws. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, even if he became a more well-rounded switch-hitter, numbers like those aren’t very good in comparison to Bellinger\u2019s production and fielding prowess. But the fact remains that Dom\u00ednguez still has significant potential<\/a> and does not deserve to ride the bench for another year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe Next Year<\/h3>\n

The good news for him, if there is any, is that there should be only one more year before he finally becomes a full-time starter. The Yankees will almost certainly avoid re-signing Trent Grisham again (barring another monster campaign), so that will open up a spot in the outfield besides Bellinger and Aaron Judge. And of course, there are the inevitable injuries that will arise, which could also give Dom\u00ednguez a chance to show the Yankees\u2019 front office that he deserves to start. There\u2019s no way of telling how a player\u2019s season will go, but unfortunately for Dom\u00ednguez, it looks like he won\u2019t be getting his shot just yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: John Jones-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The long saga of negotiations between Cody Bellinger and the New York Yankees has finally ended after months and months of negotiations. Bellinger’s deal, announced on Wednesday, spans 5 years and is worth $162.5 million. The Yankees are certainly happy to retain Bellinger, who was one of their most valuable players both on offense and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5148,"featured_media":112716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1071],"tags":[899,29242],"class_list":["post-112705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","category-mlb","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-jason-dominguez"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112705"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112717,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112705\/revisions\/112717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}