KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The inevitable became official Wednesday: Jasson Dominguez’s rehab clock is over, and the Yankees have chosen to keep the young outfielder in the minors.
Dominguez spent the maximum amount of time on a rehab assignment — 20 days, plus a 10-day extension — and tore up minor league pitching that he will continue to see.
The Yankees officially returned Dominguez from the rehab assignment and optioned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
There is nowhere for the 21-year-old to play at the major league level.
Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo comprise probably the best outfield in baseball, Giancarlo Stanton is DH’ing and Trent Grisham is a solid defender as fourth outfielder.
The Yankees do not want to replace Grisham with Dominguez and have a top prospect only playing sparingly.
Which means “The Martian” will continue to try to prove himself at the minor league level.
In 20 games split between High-A Tampa, Double-A Somerset and SWB, Dominguez entered play Wednesday hitting .368 with six home runs and a 1.073 OPS.
“Keep doing your thing,” manager Aaron Boone said of the message to Dominguez. “We love the person and the player. We know he’s going to be a big part of this. But also understand, too, that he’s also very, very young in his career. There’s still a lot to be gained and learned. Every day you get experience facing pitching and playing games.”
The Yankees’ No. 1 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, debuted last September, hit immediately in eight games (.980 OPS) but then required Tommy John surgery.
“He’s got a great head on his shoulders,” Boone said before an 11-5 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. “I feel like he knows he’s destined for great things in this game.”
Gerrit Cole will make his third minor league start Friday, this time with SWB. In his last start, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner lasted 57 pitches in 4 ²/₃ innings.
Boone said “we’ll see” whether his third rehab outing would be his final one.
The Yankees transferred infielder Jon Berti (left calf strain) to the 60-day injured list.
Boone said it would be “a few more weeks” before he hoped Berti could begin ramping up baseball activities.
Friday’s Yankees-Red Sox game in Boston has been moved from 7:10 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. as a courtesy to Boston fans: Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Mavericks is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m.
Gleyber Torres (1-for-4 with a walk and a three-run home run) extended his season-high on-base streak to 19 games since May 23, which marks the third-longest streak of his career.
