Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our bi-weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail
[dot] com.
Chip23 asks: Given Hal’s whining about the payroll and the profitability of the Yankees can we put to rest the notion that this team will be serious contenders for any of the free agents on the market (including Bellinger) and likely won’t even be players for any of the contracts that may be on the move via trade unless they can move dollars out?
The question was submitted in late November, but mid-way through December now and with the Winter Meetings behind us there hasn’t been much to dissuade from this argument yet. Obviously, the offseason is far from over, and has been moving much slower than folks anticipated at the start — Bellinger and Tucker are both still available, and outside of Dylan Cease’s deal the starting pitching market hasn’t moved much either. The Yankees also managed to make a lot happen last offseason without the industry catching onto their pivot post-Soto sweepstakes, so the lack of noise out of their front office doesn’t equate to nothing moving.
All that being said… it doesn’t feel like there’s much hope for a big sweeping retool of the roster, does there? At most, I think the Yankees will be in on Bellinger to the final stages of his free agency and perhaps still come out on top to re-sign him, but there’s more competition there now with the Mets getting involved and other contenders being willing to roll out a bigger offer than Bellinger got his last time around on the market. Trades could still bring in plenty of fresh faces, but New York doesn’t look to be too involved in something game-changing like the Tarik Skubal or Ketel Marte talks that have been emerging. The Yankee offense was elite in 2025, notwithstanding a handful of games in October, so I don’t particularly have a problem with running back the lineup for one more run, but with time running out on this core’s clock I’d hope that they can push their ceiling higher on top of keeping their floor the same.
The idiot that said, “Harper is coming” asks: If you had to assign a ceiling and a floor for offensive production you’d expect out of Jasson Domínguez, what would it be? How about the same for Spencer Jones?
Domínguez is perhaps the biggest question mark the Yankees are carrying into 2026, their former top prospect with some of that sheen still on him but with parts of three seasons now in the books with little to show for it. Domínguez was a notch above average with the bat last year and a black hole on defense, ceding his playing time over to Trent Grisham. FanGraphs projections on him don’t see the needle moving too much, giving him room to be a 1.5-2 fWAR player. I think the bat is stable enough to provide at least league-average production going forward, even if he can’t figure out his issues against lefties, but if he does then he could jump up towards the 120 wRC+ production that would make the Yankee outfield undoubtedly the best in the business. The defense I have little faith in at this point, but any progression towards mediocre would help push him towards a borderline All-Star level of value. Asking for much more than that in 2026 feels foolish, especially when it’s still up in the air whether the team will give him that full-time opportunity at last or not.
Jones is a harder profile to quantify, especially given he’s yet to debut in the majors. The power display was obviously tremendous, but outside of a nuclear summer it was difficult to watch Jones’ bat flail through the zone. The hope is much higher given he’s yet to put himself on display in pinstripes, perhaps reaching 25-30 home runs given a full sample size, but the floor could easily resemble 2016 Aaron Judge’s dismal start in the majors.
jmack175 asks: How realistic is it that Lombard takes over SS by the fall? Scouts seem to think Lombard’s glove is MLB ready now, could he realistically take the role full time by September? How far away is his bat?
I don’t envision Lombard being in the plans for 2026 at all unless he manages to force the issue in a significant way. Lombard dazzled at the start of the year, hitting .329 with a .983 OPS in 24 games for High-A Hudson Valley, but once he got the promotion to Double-A Somerset his bat took a nosedive: in 108 games he posted a .695 OPS and while he still worked his walks he struggled to put the bat on the ball. At just 20-years-old, that’s far from reason to panic yet over Lombard’s offensive abilities, but it does indicate that he’ll need to progress through each level of the minors. Lombard has yet to even see Triple-A pitchers, let alone test his mettle against them.
If the Yankees want to move on from Anthony Volpe, they’d do well to not repeat what they did in his development by skipping over that final test. Volpe played in just 22 Triple-A games at the end of the 2022 season before winning the starting job in ‘23, and while he’s shown impressive initial stretches each and every year he’s lacked any ability to showcase a mid-season adjustment when the slumps come. Instead of rushing Lombard up to step into his shoes, if they want a long-term solution at shortstop to come from within they need to be patient with him. That’s not an answer that meshes well with their current situation in the majors, of course, but that would require them to make some bolder moves for the roster at large than what they’ve been willing to do so far.
