Aaron Boone admits he has no solutions for Yankees' left field problem ahead of postseason

Despite their great record, this New York Yankees roster is far from flawless. One of, if not their biggest hole all season has been their production in left field.

Yankees left fielders rank tied for 23rd in the majors with an 84 WRC+ and tied for 21st with 0.6 fWAR as of this writing, and that's even with Aaron Judge playing five games at that position.

The Yankees hoped that they had finally fixed their left field woes by promoting top prospect Jasson Dominguez to the majors. Not only is Dominguez slashing .200/.294/.369 with two home runs in 14 games as of this writing, but he has been a liability in the field.

Dominguez's struggles raise the question of what New York should do in left field. Not even Aaron Boone seems to know the right answer there.

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Despite Aaron Boone's hesitance, there's a clear solution to this Yankees problem?

Despite his preference for having an established starter, there's a chance according to Boone that the Yankees will have to pick who plays in left field in the postseason between Dominguez and Alex Verdugo based on the matchups.

While Dominguez is far from perfect, the fact that this is even being debated is pretty insane. The reason that the Yankees constantly get eliminated early in the postseason has to do with their lagging offense. Dominguez was promoted to the majors to swing the bat. Even the biggest Alex Verdugo fan in the world will say at this stage of his career, Dominguez has more potential to help the Yankees offensively than Verdugo does.

Dominguez has two home runs in his last 21 plate appearances. Verdugo has two home runs in his last 84 plate appearances. You'd have to go over 160 plate appearances deep to find Verdugo's third-most recent home run. Had Verdugo been swinging a hot bat otherwise perhaps he'd have an argument, but he has three hits in his last 23 at-bats.

Dominguez's defense is bad, but Verdugo ranks in the 43rd percentile with -1 outs above average according to Baseball Savant. It's not as if he's a world-beater out there, in fact, that metric would suggest he's below average. He might be a bit better than Dominguez, but is it better enough to sacrifice Dominguez's upside offensively?

If the Yankees are winning a game late, inserting Verdugo or Trent Grisham for defense is a fine decision to make. I'd even say it's a smart decision to make. Starting Verdugo, thus limiting Dominguez to one pinch-hit at-bat if he's lucky, is not the best way to maximize the players Aaron Boone has at his disposal.

The Yankees have arguably the worst defensive second baseman in the league, Gleyber Torres, playing every day at the keystone because of his bat. Dominguez doesn't have Torres' track record, obviously, but he does have Torres' offensive upside. They should do the same with Dominguez.

Verdugo has been a below-average player all season. Dominguez has had his ups and downs since his early-September recall, but the upside he possesses simply cannot be ignored. Defensive miscues would be extremely unfortunate and are a cause for removing him early in games in which they have a late lead but starting Verdugo, who is not a Gold Glove-caliber defender and offers next to nothing offensively, would be a mistake.

If Verdugo had been the hitter he was in Boston, this would not be a discussion. Dominguez probably wouldn't even be in the majors to begin with. Verdugo, being the subpar player he has been virtually all season, is why the Yankees are in this predicament. Dominguez needs some polishing, but even with his defensive lapses, he provides way more value than Verdugo.