Jasson Dominguez took another step Wednesday toward returning to the Yankees schedule, beginning to hit baseballs off a tee nearly two weeks after he crashed into the Yankee Stadium left field wall. The 22-year-old outfielder said the swings still felt a little uncomfortable, but he was past the point where the injury felt as sharp as it did when he first started dry swings a few days earlier.
Dominguez was chasing a deep first-inning fly ball on May 7 against the Texas Rangers when he hit the unpadded matrix portion of the wall in left field. The catch left him with a strained AC joint in his left shoulder and sent him into concussion protocol, a frightening moment in his ninth game of the season. Asked about the collision, Dominguez said, “I knew I was close,” and added, “But I didn’t think I was that close to the wall. That’s why I hit it so hard.”
He said the impact was bad enough to make the moment feel alarming in real time. “It was scary to see that,” Dominguez said. There were no concussion-related symptoms afterward, but the shoulder injury was enough to land him on the injured list, and there is still no current timetable for his return to the lineup.
The injury came after Dominguez had reclaimed his big-league roster spot and some regular playing time with Giancarlo Stanton on the injured list. Stanton has been sidelined since April 25 with a right calf strain and has been taking indoor at-bats off the Trajekt machine, but he has not yet been cleared to run after last week’s comparison MRI. Spencer Jones was called up to replace Dominguez on the roster.
For now, Dominguez is moving from dry swings to live tee work and saying the shoulder is “better” than it was a few days ago. That is progress, but it is not a return, and the Yankees still have to wait for the next medical checkpoint before they know when one of their most watched young hitters can get back into the lineup.
