New York Yankees’ Jasson Domínguez reacts after hitting a home run during the ninth inning of a … More
The Yankees will play their 81st game Friday and depending on the outcome they will be mathematically on pace for 92 or 94 wins.
The mathematically halfway point gives some kind of idea of how things might shake out for a team barring something drastic and the Yankees are on pace to be about the same team they were last season, just with some more contributions from younger players.
Last season, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells got a combined 1,103 plate appearances. While Oswaldo Cabrera got 326 plate appearances as a utility type, the Yankees did not have a full season from Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr and Jasson Dominguez, a trio who combined for 436 plate appearances due to various circumstances.
Rice played the most out of the trio, getting into 50 games but hitting well under .200 after joining the team as an injury replacement for Anthony Rizzo. He hit three of his seven homers on July 7 against the Red Sox.
Chisholm played in 46 games following his trade from the Marlins and did well, moving to third base and hitting .273 with 11 homers and 23 RBIs to go along with an .825 OPS.
Dominguez got into 18 games after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and his elbow and spent part of his second taste of the majors as a novice left fielder.
This year, the Yankees enter their 81st game at 46-34. They were once seven games up in the AL East but the lead is down to a half-game.
Even with the Yankees going 11-14 in the past 25 games, it is hard to ignore some of the contributions from the fairly youngish trio.
Through the first 80 games, Rice, Dominguez and Chisholm combined for 722 playe appearances, a figure that would be higher if not for Chisholm missing a month with an oblique injury.
While each player produced cold streaks at times, they are giving the Yankees enough contributions.
The Yankees loved Rice’s exit velocity throughout spring training and anointed hm into the DH mix when Giancarlo Stanton went down with tendon issues in both elbows. Rice enters the finale of the first half hitting .238 with an .814 OPS and 14 homers, third-most on the team, though eight were hit in the first month when Rice batted .266.
Rice also is the owner of the Yankees’ third-best average exit velocity at 93.3 only behind people you’d expect in Aaron Judge and Stanton. Rice’s hard-hit percentage of 54.6 is right ahead of Judge for the second-highest though they might engage in a race about who hits the ball hardest all season.
Chisholm showed his streakiness early, hitting .310 through the first week of the season. When he got hurt, the average was down to .181 but since returning he is batting .329.
As for some of the advanced metrics, Chisholm is averaging 88.9 on exit velocities, which is in line with his previous seasons. He also is producing a hard hit percentage of 43.3, second in his second career behind the 46.7 percent in 2022.
Dominguez has been on the Yankee radar ever since he signed as an international free agent in July 2019, a period so long ago, it was a few days removed from the Brooklyn Nets signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Dominguez rose to the point of earning a callup in Sept. 2023 and homered in his debut at Houston. He hit four homers in eight games before getting hurt and the Yankees waited through most of last season for his injuries to heal before bringing him up.
Like many young players, Dominguez is battling with inconsistencies. His average is up to .253 after a four-hit night on Wednesday and his past 41 games have shown improvement.
After hitting .228 with two homers and 12 RBIs in the first 26 games, Dominguez is batting a more than acceptable .272 (34-for-125) with four homers and 15 RBIs to go along with nine steals.
Most of Dominguez’s production is from the left side against right-handed pitching. In 147 at-bats, he is a .279 with five homers, including a walk-off on May 21 as compared to a .200 hitter in 70 at-bats from the right side of the plate.
The trio of young supporting players still has a ways to go and with the Yankees there always is the question of performing in the postseason but in the meantime the AL East leaders are enjoying enough productive at-bats.
