February 11, 2025
***
This week we asked our writers the following:
What are you most looking forward to seeing (or hearing about) from Spring Training this year?
Here are their replies...
***
Derek McAdam - If the Yankees do not make any further transactions for a third baseman, I’ll be curious to know who ends up winning the everyday job. It seems that there are several candidates who are up for the job, so which one pulls through may be the big talk of Spring Training.
***
Lincoln Mitchell - I am very interested to see how Jasson Dominguez looks. There has not been a lot of attention paid to him since his unimpressive showing with the Yankees last year, but I believe he has a very high ceiling and can be a big part of the 2025 Yankees if things go well for him.
***
Ed Botti - I am looking forward to a full and healthy spring training without daily stories, predictions, comments and questions to players, coaches, front office staff, broadcasters and even the bat boys about where Juan Soto will play next year. In other words, back to baseball!
***
Tim Kabel - The two things that I am most looking forward to seeing from Spring Training are the emergence and development of Jasson Dominguez, and the fact that the Yankees acquire a legitimate third baseman, thus ending the DJ LeMahieu “Rejuvenation Experiment”.
***
Tamar Chalker - I think it is going to be an interesting year for Jason Dominguez, so I will be keeping an eye on him to start spring training. ***
Andrew Hefner - I'm looking forward to seeing the progression of Ben Rice. Although he ended up cooling off after the first week or two of his time in the bigs, his infamous 3-homer game and defensive gems have made me hopeful that he can become a star in the Bronx. I'm hoping his plate discipline has gotten better as he struggled with consistency and that he can learn from 4 time Gold Glove winner Paul Goldschmidt during his tenure with the Yankees.
***
Cary Greene - I'm most looking forward to seeing how the Yankees rookies do. As always, I'm rooting for some homegrown talent to crack the Big Leagues roster. This year, Oswald Peraza has a real chance to lock down job. Granted, Spring Training performance means almost next to nothing, but I'd like to see Jasson Dominguez do well this Spring also.
If DJ LeMahieu finished Camp batting .400- plus, that would be a benefit as well and though he's not a homegrown talent, it might be a very positive sign for the season ahead, if he was able to have a strong spring.
***
Paul Semendinger - I'm looking forward to a camp that stresses fundamentals, game situations, heads-up baseball, and the like. (I guess I'm talking about the Dodgers!) Seriously, I'm looking forward to seeing the starting rotation. The Yankees should have something special there.
***
Mike Whiteman - I'm excited to see who the Yankee will be who comes from nowhere to make the roster out of Spring Training.
I'm Hoping that they have patience with The Martian, let him have some bad days and let him learn to hit Righty..
I remember Paul O'Neil couldn't hit Lefty's when he came to NY, from Cincinnati, LoL, yeah Right !! Paul changed that narrative, I'm just praying they have the same belief and confidence in Dominquez !!! I'm also hoping for DJ to be healthy, and show these fans, you can't judge an athlete, by the stats when he's injured !!!...
Go Yankees, I can't wait for the games to start....at 70, I don't expect anymore,
Andrew- DJ is also a 4 time gold glover
my guess is that his tank is just too close to empty and he cannot be a productive big leaguer again. BUT, he is a very good dude and teammate. and at this point, it does not hurt to see if he can be healthy and put up one more good season with the bat
i mean at this point last year, who was predicting Jurickson Profar to be one of the top 15 ish offensive players in the game?? NOBODY
so we give DJ a shot. if he comes out ot spring batting over ??? .350 you run with it and he is probably the leadoff hitter at that point…
this team has high hopes and a great chance to realize them
if Dominguez and Wells and Volpe do some of the heavy lifting.
and Jazz...... in 46 games as a Yankee last season, he provided 11 HRs and a batting average of .273
I envision that in 2025, he is likely to play 3 times as many games for New York
at that makes it likely that he'll provide 33 HRs and a BA of .819