ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jasson Dominguez checked off another box on Wednesday while continuing his comeback from Tommy John surgery.
The 21-year-old Yankee started his first game in the outfield after strictly DHing during the first two weeks of his rehab assignment, playing five innings in center field for Double-A Somerset.
Through 11 rehab games, the switch-hitting Dominguez has hit .286 with an .810 OPS, now adding defensive responsibilities to his plate.
“He’s in a good spot,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the Angels on Wednesday night. “He’s had a really good rehab, in that it’s gone smooth, he hasn’t been rushed, he’s been built up properly. So he’s in a pretty good place.”
Dominguez’s 20-day rehab clock runs until June 2, after which the Yankees will have to either activate him onto the major league roster or option him to the minor leagues.
The latter remains the likely scenario, barring an injury to the big-league club — though even then, Dominguez will only have a handful of games in the outfield before his rehab assignment expires, meaning he would still likely need some more time at Triple-A to fully build up his workload.
Once he is all the way back from a physical standpoint, Dominguez can serve as insurance in case one of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo or Giancarlo Stanton gets injured.
When Soto hit his 15th home run of the season Tuesday night, he joined Judge (17 home runs) for only the seventh time in franchise history that a pair of teammates have hit at least 15 home runs through the Yankees’ first 56 games of a season.
The last to do it were Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira in 2011.
Before them, it was Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in 1961, Mantle and Yogi Berra in 1956, and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1927, ’28 and ’30.
Soto had an extended conversation with two umpires during Tuesday’s game, which Boone said Wednesday was about the pitch clock being in his sight line in center field at Angel Stadium.
Boone added that his understanding is that the location of the clock is within regulation.
Infielder Kevin Smith — outrighted off the roster Tuesday to make room for DJ LeMahieu — changed course Wednesday and accepted the assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre instead of becoming a free agent.
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