The New York Yankees used nearly their entire international bonus pool to sign now-19-year-old Jasson Dominguez out of the Dominican Republic a few years ago. The power-hitting outfielder is already the No. 2 ranked prospect in the Yankees organization despite only playing 56 games in Class A. Yet, Yankees fans are already falling in love with Dominguez, and it’s easy to see why.
Fans often don’t realize how difficult it is for a professional athlete to move to a new country with a different language while being tasked with playing a sport at the highest level.
It’s even more difficult when you have to answer interview questions in a second language. It’s a barrier that MLB has improved upon in recent years with team translators, but we’ve seen some players make an effort to learn English anyway.
On Wednesday, Dominguez even took team translator Hector Gonzalez by surprise when he insisted on answering questions from the Yankees media in English. And it led to such a wholesome scene.