Jasson Dominguez questions loom for Yankees with roster expansion coming

Jasson Dominguez is the backup quarterback. He is the answer because — if you are a Yankee fan — you have grown to hate the starter and what you don’t know is better than what you do. In this case Dominguez is better than Alex Verdugo. 

I know. You think you know Dominguez because he hit four homers in eight MLB games last year and he is tearing it up in the minors. But Ben Rice hit a bunch early in the majors after tearing up the minors (.925 OPS this year in 268 plate appearances to .852 in 212 for Dominguez) and how is Rice looking these days? 

If your argument is that Dominguez has way more elite-prospect pedigree than Rice, sure, but he has less than Anthony Volpe did, and how have you liked the two offensive seasons of Volpe — and what sure looks like some yippy defense recently? The majors are tough, in part because the minors have never sucked more (really, ask any evaluator) and so killing it down there is not a barometer to bet upon. 

Yet, the Yankees probably should see what the backup quarterback has — hope he is Jordan Love not Trey Lance — as they face the last month and last chance to upgrade the roster. They played their final game Saturday before rosters expand from 26 to 28. Anthony Rizzo will return Sunday from a forearm fracture suffered in mid-June. The Yanks hope he can bring even close to the league-average first-base production that Rice and DJ LeMahieu notably have not. Oswaldo Cabrera started just his second game this year at first and went 0-for-4 and was called out on strikes for a clock violation to lead off the ninth in what soon became a 6-5 Cardinals victory. 

Over the next few September days, the Yanks might be as physically whole as they have all year as Jon Berti, Luis Gil, Ian Hamilton and Clarke Schmidt are all nearing returns, too. 

The most curious question, though, rotates around Dominguez. Recently, Brian Cashman said he did not see a path to provide the switch-hitter everyday at-bats and it does not make sense to hope Dominguez can learn on the fly to help off the bench. So, this means the Yankees would have to believe — the way a large swath of their fan base does — that Dominguez can walk into a pennant race and outperform Verdugo, who remains a strong defender, including throwing a runner out at the plate Saturday. Cashman did not return a text asking if he had changed his stance on Dominguez.