According to the Internet, the Yankees have $5.1 million to spend this winter on strapping, international teen beefcakes. And as early as this weekend, they might drop the entire flaming wad on one 17-year-old shortstop named Roderick Arias, which - if you're scoring at home - would make him "the next Jasson Dominiquez."Strange times, eh?
I mean, seriously... is this a sunspot year? Is humanity on Double-Secret Probation? Every day, another boomer icon passes - (Betty, Madden, Saget and now Ronnie Spector?) Machine Gun Kelly is marrying Meghan Fox. (What does he see in her?) And, get this: Cannabis might deter Covid.
And the Yankees are seeking "the next Jasson Dominiquez."
At this point, I'm reminded of the great Professor Irwin Corey's longstanding view on nuclear bombs: We shouldn't make more until we use the ones we've got.
Same with Dominiquez, who - if you follow this blog - is slowly morphing into a sign of the apocalypse. Three years ago, the Yankees signed him for $5.1 million - a number starkly familiar? A switch-hitting CF, he was compared to Mickey Mantle and Mike Trout, and instantly became The Great Yankee Hope - a fantastical being within franchise mythology... the future savior who would lead this decrepit organization from the foggy thicket of its own hubris.
Last year, in the rookie dirt leagues, over 206 at bats, Dominiquez hit .252 with 5 HRs.
IT IS HIGH readers might say, Meh! But Yankee scouts - with presumably a lot more invested in him - say they couldn't be happier! He's a joy. He's a king. He's the Future. And he'll turn 19 in February.
By then, he might also be replaced. The Yanks are supposedly all-in on Arias, who is ranked - (they rank everything) - the No. 1 International prospect on the market. Arias is a 6'1", 180-pound switch-hitting SS, and while we shouldn't count on him signing until the ink is dry, sometimes, it seems these kids have been bought and paid-for long in advance of the signing portal... but that's another story, one that maybe Merrick Garland should someday ponder?
So, let's say the Yankees sign Arias this weekend. Remember that scene in The Lion King? Instantly, the Yankiverse will celebrate a budding new top prospect. He might even displace Dominiquez as the current No. 2, behind the ascendant Anthony Volpe. And we will have another name to watch.But, damn... It's hard to be the next Mickey Mantle or Mike Trout. It's got to be a lot easier to be the next Jasson Dominquez.
By the way, the Yankees have been doing this now for years. In 2014, they made a celebrated splash into the foreign market, dropping tens of millions on kids who are still bobbing through the system, though now in other organizations. One remaining prospect from that class is Estavan Florial, who still strikes out too much to garner much hope as the future CF. And somehow, Wander Franco got away...
If the Yankees shoot their wad on "the next Jasson Dominiquez," maybe Dominiquez will become "the former Roderick Arias." The wheel just keeps turning, eh?
