Raul Dominguez is back with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders this season.
He was on the RailRiders staff for the 2021 and 2022 seasons before being named manager of the New York Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, the Somerset Patriots, in 2023. In three seasons, he compiled a 232-180 record and took the Patriots to the Eastern League playoffs all three seasons.
Now, he returns to the RailRiders to serve as defensive coach on manager Shelley Duncan’s staff.
“After spending three years in Somerset and now coming back here again in Triple-A with a new staff, a lot of guys I’m going to work with for the first time, I’m excited,” Dominguez said. “I feel as a coach, you learn every year from different managers and coaches.
“Last year in Somerset, I worked with those (players) a lot and now they’re here and I have a relationship with them. Having those guys again and knowing them a little bit and what they need to work on, I’m excited to be here with that group.”
Before coming back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Dominguez got to experience something special. He served as first-base coach for Panama at the World Baseball Classic. Playing in Pool A in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Panama went 1-3. It lost to Cuba, 3-1; Puerto Rico, 4-3; and Colombia, 4-3; and defeated Canada, 4-3.
“Those four games were so exciting, there was a lot of up and down emotion,” Dominguez said. “We only won one game, but we lost two games by one and one by two. It was so loud and exciting. I remember I didn’t feel any fatigue until after when I got back to Tampa. But during those four days, it was one of my best experiences in baseball, especially with that name on my chest — Panama. I thought it was going to be the same as the winter league or the Caribbean Series, but no. It was totally different. It was very competitive and very emotional. It was a really, really good experience for me.”
Brendan Beck echoed that sentiment. The right-hander, who is ranked No. 22 among Yankees prospects according to MLB Pipeline, pitched in the WBC for Great Britain — his mother is British. He got to be teammates with his older brother Tristan, who is in the San Francisco Giants organization.
On March 9, Beck started for Great Britain against Brazil and threw four scoreless and hitless innings with two walks and four strikeouts in an 8-1 win.
“It was awesome. It was super special. Definitely not something I dreamed of growing up, even knowing there was a Great Britain baseball team,” Beck said. “We figured it out and knew that opportunity was there. Just super-exciting leading up to the tournament and then putting the uniform on was really cool. Really the first time I got to represent my mom and her side of the family. My grandparents aren’t with us anymore, but they would have thought it was really cool just to see Great Britain on the baseball field. Getting to do it with my brother, having my whole family in Houston and friends come in was super special. Something I’ll definitely remember.”
Right-hander Harrison Cohen, the Yankees’ No. 28 prospect, was a member of Team Israel at the WBC. He appeared in one game and threw two scoreless and hitless innings with five strikeouts in a 6-2 victory over The Netherlands.
Elmer Rodríguez, the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect, pitched for Puerto Rico. The righty started against Cuba on March 9th and got the win, 4-1. He pitched three scoreless innings with one hit, three walks and three strikeouts.
Reliever Yerry De Los Santos was on the Dominican Republic’s Designated Pitcher Pool, which meant he could have been called up after the first round. However, he was not.
While the World Baseball Classic has its critics, Beck thinks the tournament is great for the game.
“It really shows how much of a global sport baseball is,” Beck said. “You think of Major League Baseball, you think of the Japanese League, obviously Mexico and Korea have big leagues as well. But seeing the fans we had with Great Britain supporting us back home and seeing teams like the Czech Republic, some of the small island teams, people know baseball. Baseball is a global language, a global sport.
“You saw how passionate the players were playing in it. Only one team every year can win the World Series, but you saw how important it was for guys playing a championship tournament in March. Guys were pushing themselves more than they ever really pushed themselves in March. I think that’s cool. Guys were playing for something more than themselves. Doing whatever it takes for their team, their country, their fans, I think is really cool.”
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