Yankees’ Jasson Dominguez will get a look at leadoff hitter, along with learning leftfield

TAMPA, Fla. — Could the Martian be landing in the Yankees’ leadoff spot? As of now, Jasson Dominguez certainly is on the short list of finalists, and don’t be surprised if he’s atop the order for their Grapefruit League opener Friday against the Rays at Steinbrenner Field.

That seems to be fine with Dominguez, too. Mostly. When I asked him Wednesday about the role, he mentioned that it wasn’t necessarily his favorite spot in the minors — Dominguez preferred to see more of the pitcher’s arsenal first — but emphasized that he’ll be ready for the assignment.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Dominguez said. “If that’s where my team needs me, I’ll do that.”

Consider him on notice. Manager Aaron Boone already has broached the subject with Dominguez, more to plant the seed than any in-depth conversation, and it only makes sense to put him there ASAP, just to get an early jump on the six-week evaluation period.

As much as the Yankees were ready to move on from Gleyber Torres, who signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the Tigers, they also lost their established leadoff hitter in the process. It took a while to get there, too, with Torres emerging from the rubble of the Anthony Volpe Experiment (.293 OBP in 77 games) to fill what had become a troublesome void in the Bronx.

Before Torres took over the reins full-time on Aug. 16, the Yankees’ leadoff hitters had the second-worst OPS (.280) in the majors and an 81 wRC+ (a runs-created metric designed to measure offensive production) that was the third-lowest overall (100 is league average).

Translation: The Yankees didn’t have anyone capable for that particular job until Torres, the much-maligned underachiever, moved back to leadoff and subsequently caught fire by hitting .313 with an .840 OPS over the final 39 games of the regular season. Having Juan Soto, the MVP runner-up, batting behind Torres definitely didn’t hurt, along with two-time MVP Aaron Judge following him in the No. 3 spot.

But that’s history now. With Torres in Detroit, and Soto now collecting his $765 million in Queens, Boone is left with a brand-new puzzle to sort out, and it starts with the first piece. Dominguez naturally profiles for the gig: switch-hitting slugger with speed who has shown a proclivity to get on base in the minors — as well as steal them (.373 OBP, 102 SBs in 353 games).

The caveat? The high-ceiling Dominguez has been limited to only 100 plate appearances with the Yankees due to Tommy John surgery and a subsequent oblique injury last season. He’s all sky-high potential at this point, and is sticking him in the leadoff spot too much to put on his plate along with getting him up to speed in leftfield as well? The Yankees don’t seem too worried about overloading the Martian this spring. He just turned 22 earlier this month, but in their view, he’s rock-solid, regardless of what they throw at him.

“You don’t want guys to do something different,” hitting coach James Rowson said. “I don’t want a guy to try to be a leadoff hitter — I want him to be the hitter that he is, and do it in the ‘one’ hole. I think it’ll be A-OK for J.D. because he’s confident. I don’t feel like he’ll change his approach up there. You’d worry about some other guys from time to time, but I don’t have that feeling with J.D.”

That’s a sturdy endorsement from Rowson, but Boone is keeping his options open at this stage. The Yankees had a similar outlook on Volpe for that role when they first promoted him in 2023 — another exceptional hitter in the minors with speed — but he still hasn’t grown into the job. That’s not to say Volpe isn’t better prepared now, entering this third MLB season, but he’s really shined lower in the lineup.

Boone also could go with Jazz Chisholm, whose 840 plate appearances there (.244/.304/.428) are more than every other spot in the lineup combined. But given Giancarlo Stanton’s uncertain status, the manager currently has a canyon-sized vacancy in the cleanup spot, too. Before Stanton came to camp with a double case of what he described as “tennis elbow,” the Yankees appeared to set up pretty well through the top six, especially with Boone’s lefty-righty mindset: Dominguez, Judge, Cody Bellinger, Stanton, Chisholm, Paul Goldschmidt.

But who knows when Stanton will be back. Boone didn’t give any sort of timetable Wednesday as to when Stanton would resume baseball activities — he was spotted running cones in the outfield — so for now, he’ll have to be considered a question mark for Opening Day until proved otherwise.

Dominguez becoming a force in the leadoff spot this spring would clear up the uncertainty left by Torres’ departure — and strengthen the Yankees in an area they usually don’t figure out until well after Opening Day. One less decision should make Boone happy, but he tried to downplay the significance of who the Yankees put there, and how often.

“I think we all overstate it, and it will really get noisy from the outside,” Boone said. “That drives me nuts sometimes. Like if somebody gets off to a good start, you can’t move them. But if you start him too early, well, he’s not ready for that. It’s the big leagues, man. These guys are ready to go. So I’m open to a lot of things.”

One of those things, perhaps the front-runner, is the Martian.