Yankees Face Unexpected Crisis: What’s the Bold Move if Jasson Domínguez Lands on the IL?

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It would have been extremely nice to finsh an 8-1 road trip with another sweep, but mean ol’ pal Nathan Eovaldi proved to be the force that stopped the Yankees in their tracks. The tenacious foe shut New York out through seven as Texas salvaged the final game of their series, outdueling the debuting Elmer Rodríguez.

The most concern from the affair, however, came from a fourth-inning plunking by Eovaldi on Jasson Domínguez. The pitch hit him on the elbow, and he was visibly in quite a bit of pain. After being examined, he stayed in to run the bases but was ultimately pulled before he could take the field on defense in the home half of the inning. An MRI in Texas was inconclusive, so Domínguez will get CT scans when the Yankees return to New York. Monitoring that situation will be the story of the Thursday offday.

So our question to you: What should the Yankees do if Domínguez needs to join the man he was effectively replacing in the lineup, Giancarlo Stanton, on the IL?

Unfortunate timing might have sapped the Yankees out of one of their options, as they had designated Randal Grichuk for assignment that very morning to make room for ERC on their roster; he and Domínguez had nearly-duplicative roles, so it made sense to cut ties even with Grichuk hitting at least a bit better than he began 2026. Perhaps they’re able to bring him back anyway despite the DFA, but if another team claims Grichuk, then they’re out of luck there.

There are other options at Triple-A Scranton, though. The most straightforward answer is bringing the versatile Oswaldo Cabrera back to the majors for the first time since his ugly injury ended his 2025 season quite abruptly. He’s already on the 40-man roster, he’s a known commodity, and the Yankees already have a full outfield of Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, and Aaron Judge anyway. So if they’re really only replacing Stanton’s DH time, then they could have a rotation of sorts there with at-bats from Ben Rice, Amed Rosario, Judge himself, or whoever. If they want more of a pure outfielder backing up, then they could add someone like the speedy Duke Ellis to the 40-man pretty easily, too. Former big leaguers Yanquiel Fernández and Seth Brown are non-40-man outfield options as well.

And of course there’s Spencer Jones. The Yankees’ top draft pick from 2022 is off to a .242/.364/.538 start with seven homers in Scranton across 26 games and 110 plate appearances. The strikeouts remain quite present, with only a slight dip in Jones’ K-rate, from 36.6-percent at Triple-A in 2025 to 33.6-percent thus far. There are zone-contact questions as well that would likely be exposed by MLB pitching. That being said, the talent remains tantalizing, and Jones is on the 40-man roster. The Yankees could take a flyer on Jones at least for a week or so, just to get a big-league read on him. But maybe the playing time isn’t quite there; it’s a bit of a different story than Domínguez, who they at least knew could help in The Show by mashing right-handed pitching. Jones is unquestionably a wild card.

So what’s your move? I’m skill a Spencer skeptic, and I do wonder if the risk of him getting exposed in any sort of time at the big-league level might only lower his possible trade value. So maybe the boring option of a Grichuk recovery or an Oswaldo return is more probable. That being said, I will be excited to see Jones if he does make his big-league debut, even if it’s under Jasson’s unfortunate circumstances. (And yet: sigh.)

The Yankees are off but the blog doesn’t rest. Today on the site, Peter will break down his Sequence of the Week, Matt will lead the Rivalry Roundup, and Jonathan will celebrate the 119th birthday of the one and only Walter “Jumbo” Brown. Later, Sam will run through the Yankees’ top plays of March and April, and Peter will take the occasion of the offday to run his monthly GM poll on Brian Cashman to get the pulse on his first month of the 2026 season. At the end of the day, Jonathan will look ahead to Anthony Volpe’s 2026 debut, breaking down the variety of expectations.