The Yankees’ offense in 2025 has, on the whole, been a great one so far. In fact, it has been the best in all of baseball (as of Saturday), based off of their cumulative 133 wRC+. Much of this, unsurprisingly, has been thanks to the continued imagination-defying performance of Aaron Judge, but many other Yankees have had promising starts to their 2025 campaigns. One who has maybe flown under the radar is Jasson Domínguez. Just 22-years-old but carrying the weight of years of hype, Domínguez been a more than competent bat in his first substantial crack at the big leagues.
When The Martian had his first cup of coffee in the major leagues, he propped up expectations even further when he hit four home runs in eight games at the end of the 2023 season. Those expectations had been sky high since his his signing at 16-years-old, thanks to the exceptional raw skills even that landed him his otherworldly nickname.
Now, in his first full-time role as a big leaguer, Domínguez has been what I’d classify as simply good. This might come as a shock, but that’s is itself a good thing. This level of solid success may go a little underrecognized, or even feel a bit disappointing because of his incredible expectations, but 2025 has undoubtedly been a positive for the switch-hitter and portends well for his place on the Yankees going forward.
Through play on Saturday, Domínguez has a more-than-solid 122 wRC+ for the 2025 season. Over the course of 151 plate appearances, the 22-year-old has swatted five home runs and slashed a respectable .236/.333/.425. A considerable chunk of his production does come from his 3-for-5 three home run and seven RBI game on May 9th, but also, why not consider a true highlight game for a player really only beginning his career?
While there are aspects to worry about with his 2025 performance — see his strikeout rate hovering around 30 percent— this start can easily be categorized as encouraging on the whole. He has combined plenty of quality contact (92nd percentile in hard-hit rate), with an impressive walk rate sitting over 12 percent, a skill he has maintained through much of his time in the minors. And while there is room for improvement on some of his peripherals, he has a top-notch max exit velocity (the raw skills have been evident since he was a teenager), and he has clearly stayed well above water without tapping into that full potential.
All things considered, Domínguez has been pretty good in 2025, and I’d call that great news for the Yankees. Despite the fact that it seems he’s been on the mind of Yankees fans for the better part of a decade, he just turned 22 this year, and his 38 games to this point is by far the most he’s played in a major league season. He hasn’t even played a half-season’s worth of big league games in his career, and is already looking like a solid part of what’s been a very good Yankee lineup.
Performances like this are easy to overlook, especially when they come from a highly touted prospect like Domínguez. He reached as high as Baseball America’s fifth-ranked prospect in the sport, so playing at a solid but not overwhelming level can come across as disappointing. This is a phenomenon, that of a hyped prospect seeming disappointing despite good performances, is the one that plagued Gleyber Torres, and even at times, at the higher end of the range, someone like Bryce Harper.
It can be easy to overlook what Jasson Domínguez is doing in 2025, but it should viewed in a very positive light by the Yankees and their fans. Still rookie eligible, he’s been one of the best rookies in baseball with the bat and should be firmly supplanted in the Rookie of the Year conversation in the American League. Though there is plenty of room for improvement, Jasson Domínguez’s start to 2025 has been a quietly promising one.
