Connect with us

Sports

Should the Yankees call up Jasson Domínguez and start him over Alex Verdugo?

Published

on

Should the Yankees call up Jasson Domínguez and start him over Alex Verdugo?

NEW YORK — On Friday, top New York Yankees prospect Jasson Domínguez was with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, starting in left field and batting second.

On Sunday, Major League Baseball active rosters will expand from 26 players to 28. That would allow the Yankees to call up Domínguez without needing to kick someone else out to make room for him.

Will they do it?

“I don’t know,” manager Aaron Boone said before Friday’s series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals at Yankee Stadium. “We’ll see. We haven’t made that decision. So, I don’t know.”

But should they call up Domínguez? The Athletic’s Yankees beat reporters Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty discuss.

Advertisement

Should the Yankees call up Domínguez?

Kirschner: This should be an obvious decision given the options available to the club. The answer is a resounding yes. He may be a difference-maker for the Yankees down the stretch and into October.

Left field has been one of the weakest positions for the Yankees this year. Going into Friday, their combined 84 wRC+ ranked 24th in MLB. Defensively, they were 13th among all teams in outs above average in left field. And they were last in Statcast’s baserunning above average. The bar would be low for Domínguez to prove that he could outperform what the Yankees have already received from left fielders this year.

The Yankees will likely be cautious about how much Domínguez plays if he is called up, as they’ll want to ensure he retains his rookie status for 2025. He needs to stay under the career 130 at-bat threshold to be considered a rookie next year (Domínguez has 35 career at-bats). If he wins Rookie of the Year in 2025, the Yankees would receive a conditional draft pick at the end of the first round.

Advertisement

There’s no downside. They need to see if Domínguez can win the everyday left-field job.

Kuty: You make compelling points, Chris. I’ll play Devil’s Advocate.

Would calling up Domínguez and giving him a month-long audition be exciting? Absolutely. Could you also argue that it may be impractical? Perhaps.

There’s no guarantee Domínguez would arrive in the Bronx and immediately put on the show he did in his debut last year, hitting four home runs with a .980 OPS in eight games before tearing his ulnar collateral ligament. That was electric. It would also be asking a lot.

Last year, when Domínguez broke into the majors on Sept. 1, the Yankees were hardly in contention. They were three games under .500. They were 17 1/2 games back in the AL East. The Yankees talked like they were still going for it, but a playoff-less October felt like a near inevitability. There was little pressure for Domínguez.

Advertisement

This would be different. Could he handle it? He absolutely could. He’s handled all the hype that came with his franchise-record $5.1 million signing bonus at age 16. But there’s no denying it would be a lot to put on the shoulders of the 21-year-old. Not to mention our next question …

If they called him up, what happens to the roster?

Kirschner: Yankees manager Aaron Boone said if Domínguez were to be called up, they would ideally want him playing regularly to not stunt his development. That would mean Alex Verdugo would lose his starting job. It may also mean Trent Grisham gets pushed down further on the depth chart. On the days Aaron Judge started as the team’s designated hitter, Domínguez could start in center field.

Maybe the Yankees wouldn’t want to ruffle the clubhouse by replacing Verdugo — whom Judge personally advocated trading for this offseason and in years prior — to start a rookie. But Verdugo has had nearly a season’s worth of games to prove he shouldn’t compete with a rookie for his job, and he’s failed.

He’s graded out as a negative offensively, on the base paths and public advanced defensive metrics are split on his value. Is that not enough for the organization to believe it may be able to do better by trying someone different? And if Domínguez doesn’t work out over the next month, well, they’ve remained in first place with Verdugo being one of MLB’s worst everyday position players.

There seems to be a higher likelihood of Domínguez being a more impactful player than Verdugo in October.

Advertisement

Kuty: I could see that. You certainly could argue that Domínguez has a higher ceiling offensively than Verdugo — even in the short term. There’s no sugarcoating it: The 28-year-old has not been what the Yankees expected at the plate.

The Devil’s Advocate argument, though, would be that Verdugo has actually looked like a strong and, at times, excellent defensive left fielder. He’s had a few memorable gaffes, but he’s also someone I think makes just about all the routine plays, sacrifices his body and has a heck of an arm. Plus, he’d be much more familiar with the position than Domínguez when it’s crunch time in October.

If the Yankees were to promote Domínguez and bench Verdugo, I think there would be a non-zero chance the team could designate Trent Grisham for assignment and have Verdugo take over his role as fourth outfielder.

Understanding that it’s a small sample, Verdugo has looked a bit better at the plate lately. Entering Friday, he was on a five-game hitting streak (.421 BA, 1.029 OPS), which coincided with when he switched to batting gloves made with materials that stopped causing allergic reactions on his skin. Verdugo struck out in all three of his at-bats Friday night.

As for the clubhouse, I think it would handle the move fine. Like you said, Verdugo has had plenty of time to prove himself, and it’s not like they would be replacing him with a nobody.

Advertisement

What do we think happens?

It’s not a slam dunk that Domínguez will be the choice on Sunday. If the Yankees decide to make an internal move, Domínguez is likely the candidate.

However, the Yankees could opt for an external candidate. The St. Louis Cardinals designated Tommy Pham for assignment on Friday. If the Yankees are looking for a platoon partner for Verdugo, signing Pham might be a good move. Pham has a .762 OPS this year against left-handed pitching, whereas Verdugo had a .609 OPS against lefties entering Friday. Another external option would be Robbie Grossman, whom the Texas Rangers designated for assignment on Thursday. Grossman’s OPS against lefties is .819 OPS this season and .809 for his career.

All season, the Yankees have lauded Verdugo for his bat-to-ball skills. If they wanted to keep playing him often, having a platoon partner could be the best way to maximize his production.

(Photo of Jasson Domínguez: Cliff Welch / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Advertisement

Sports

Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

Published

on

Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue. 

Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June. 

Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male. 

 

Advertisement

Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports. 

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling. 

“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.

Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case. 

(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

Advertisement

“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital. 

“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13. 

Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters. 

With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.

Advertisement

Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college. 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice. 

Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)

Advertisement

SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.

“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Related Article

'Horrible' moments exposed for UNR volleyball players when they were roped into the SJSU Title IX scandal

Continue Reading

Sports

Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

Published

on

Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.

“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.

Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.

On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.

Advertisement

Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.

Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.

(Lindsey Wasson / AP)

The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.

Advertisement

Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.

His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”

Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.

Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.

A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.

Advertisement

Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.

A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.

The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.

He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.

“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”

Advertisement

Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.

“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.

“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Sports

Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

Published

on

Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead. 

“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights. 

Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.

 

Advertisement

“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann. 

One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”

Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”

Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif.  (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.

Advertisement

After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.

In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020.  (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post. 

In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. 

Advertisement

Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”

Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. 

After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media. 

Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Advertisement

Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Advertisement

Related Article

GOP lawmakers mourn legendary football coach Lou Holtz

Continue Reading

Trending