The Yankees’ outfield is loaded with star power on both sides of the ball, as any group led by Aaron Judge should be. The generational slugger won his third AL MVP award in 2025 after yet another season that had to be seen to be believed: .331/.457/.688 (a career-high in batting average), 53 home runs, 114 RBI, .357 ISO, 18.3/23.6 BB/K%. For the third time in four years, Judge posted a wRC+ over 200 (206 in 2022, 220 in 2024, 204 in 2025), meaning he was more than twice as valuable as a league-average
hitter.
Before the 2025 season, the Yankees acquired Cody Bellinger from the Cubs in exchange for Cody Poteet in a salary dump move for Chicago. Bellinger has had ups and downs ever since winning the NL MVP award in 2019, but he was a reliable and productive option for the Yankees with 29 home runs and 98 RBI in 152 games. Bellinger resigned with the Yankees after a long period of negotiations, agreeing to a five-year, $162.5 million contract.
They were also able to re-unite with Trent Grisham, who signed the qualifying offer the Yankees extended to him at the beginning of the offseason. This came as a surprise to many fans and possibly even the organization itself, after Grisham doubled his career-high in home runs with 34 in a breakout offensive season. Many expected him to test the free-agent market, but Grisham decided the best play for this season was to return to the Bronx and make $22 million. Judge, Bellinger, and Grisham combined for 116 home runs in 2025 and all three will be returning to their starting outfield gigs next season.
This is a tough development for Jasson Dominguez, who showed flashes of offensive upside in 123 games during his first real run as an MLB hitter but is still unable to firmly lock in a role in the starting lineup. Dominguez slashed .257/.331/.388 with 10 home runs and 23 stolen bases, but struggled mightily on defense and looked like the elbow surgery he underwent in 2023 might still have been affecting his power output. Grisham and Bellinger returning means Dominguez is the odd man out with Giancarlo Stanton permanently locked into the DH role, and his name has been floated in trade rumors although returning in a bench role appears to be the most likely immediate outcome. It’s fair to say his future as a Yankee is in limbo.
With so much competition in the outfield at the big-league level, it’s unlikely that any outfielders currently in the minor leagues find their way to the Bronx this season. This leaves the organization with another question to answer about the most polarizing prospect in the minor-leagues: Spencer Jones. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound Jones was drafted out of Vanderbilt in the first round of the 2022 MLB draft and features jaw-dropping raw power alongside as much swing-and-miss risk as you could possibly imagine. Jones spent his age-24 season between Double-A and Triple-A, recording 35 home runs and 29 steals in 116 games and striking out 35.4 percent of the time between the two levels. Jones will turn 25 in May and needs to at least get a chance at the big leagues sometime soon.
If you think this sounds eerily similar to the trajectory Aaron Judge followed at the start of his career, you’re not alone. It’s why the organization is still so high on his potential despite all the red flags. However, the consensus around analysts is that Jones is a fringe top-100 prospect and not everyone thinks he’ll be able to produce at the big-league level at all. It is the definition of a high-ceiling, low-floor outcome. The Yankees will have to make a decision about him soon.
Outside of Jones, the Yankees don’t have many notable prospects in the outfield and the ones they do have are far away from being in the conversation for big-league at-bats. They signed Seth Brown, who put up two 20-homer seasons with the Athletics in 2021-22, to a minor league contract and will likely start him in Scranton. The 25-year-old Kenedy Corona, who played his first three MLB games with Houston last year before signing with the Yankees, should join him.
The outfield in Double-A Somerset should be led by Jackson Castillo and Jace Avina, both of whom were consistent contributors deep in the organization last season. Castillo put up slightly above-average numbers with High-A Hudson Valley before struggling a bit after earning a promotion to Somerset. Avina followed a similar path. He tore up High-A pitching with a 168 wRC+ and eight home runs in 52 games, but came back down to Earth in 46 games in Double-A. Both players should stay in Somerset for most, if not all of the year.
There’s a larger crop of outfielders competing for spots in High-A and Low-A, a few of whom saw their stocks rise in 2025 and cracked MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 organizational prospects list to close 2025. The prospect who could be an immediate option at these levels is Wilson Rodriguez, who made his stateside debut in 2025 and adjusted nicely to Low-A pitching. At 21 years old, they may try to see what he can do in Hudson Valley before too long. Tyler Wilson and Joe Delossantos, both mid-round picks from the 2024 MLB Draft, struggled in their small samples with the High-A club but could be due for more playing time with Hudson Valley in 2026.
Richie Bonomolo Jr, the Yankees’ seventh round pick from the most recent MLB Draft, also struggled in his first sample against professional pitching but should remain a contributor in Low-A for the time being. Also in the mix for at-bats should be a few players looking to make their stateside debuts after spending 2025 in the Complex League. Brando Mayea was one of the more promising acquisitions in the 2023 international free-agent class, and despite struggling with injuries last season he put up a 137 wRC+ in his second year in the Complex. He should be due to start the season at Low-A assuming his health is in good shape. The same goes for Gabriel Lara, who spent two seasons in the Dominican Summer League and last year in the Complex league.
The most notable name among the Yankees’ rookie-ball outfielders is Francisco Vilorio, the only other outfielder to rank among MLB Pipeline’s most recent Top 30 in the organization. Vilorio was part of the team’s 2024 IFA class and has spent the past two seasons in the DSL. He hasn’t been able to access much game power (he didn’t homer once in 2025), but his profile is based around his ability to grow into more consistent hard contact. FanGraphs is particularly bullish on Vilorio’s raw power, projecting him to develop it into a 70-grade tool. He should be bumped up to the Complex to start 2026.
The Yankees’ system is top-heavy at a lot of positions entering the 2026 season, but particularly so in the outfield. The star power in the starting lineup should be the team’s main source of offensive firepower, health-permitting, and the two names to know outside of the starters are Dominguez and Jones. How the team deploys those two, either on the field or in trades, will be a major storyline to watch moving forward. Aside from those either at or approaching the big-league level, the outfield depth in the organization won’t make too many headlines in 2026. If the team adds a new outfielder at any time soon, it will almost certainly be a player brought in from another organization.
