Jasson Domínguez is producing without power

Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The Martian isn't regularly hitting balls to the moon just yet, but has still been a valuable hitter.

On Wednesday night in Cincinnati, Jasson Dominguez had one of his best nights as a major leaguer.

He went 4-for-5 with two doubles to go along with two runs scored and a pair of stolen bases.

It was an excellent switch-hitting performance from Dominguez as well, as he collected two hits from each side of the plate.

All that was missing, it seems, was a big fly.That 60-grade power tool has largely been missing from Dominguez's toolbox throughout the first three months of his rookie campaign.

In total he has six home runs half of which were hit in the same game in Sacramento and a sub-.400 slugging percentage.

His .143 ISO is below league average.

If you recited these figures to someone before the season started, they'd have little choice to believe that The Martian was having a tough time at the dish.Except Dominguez has been an above-average hitter thus far, with a 110 wRC+ as of Thursday.

He's been far more than just a fourth outfielder for the Yankees, reaching base at a strong clip and leading the team in stolen bases.

Let's take a look at what he's done well this season, then try to tease out a few reasons why the power scouts dreamed about hasn't shown itself just yet.Two positives stand out looking at his statistical profile at the plate this year.

The first is his outstanding 11.9 percent walk rate.

Even at age 22, Dominguez has shown a great ability to take quality at-bats.

While he has the kind of chase rates and strikeout rates you'd expect from an aggressive young power hitter, he averages over four pitches per plate appearance.

You can strike him out, but not without a fight; he battles you.

And those battles have resulted in a free trip to first base more than a tenth of the time.

As his approach matures with more big-league experience, he'll hopefully keep his bat on his shoulder more often on pitches below the zone, where pitchers have gotten him to regularly expand this season.

That would enable his already strong plate discipline to reach new heights.The second standout stat is Dominguezs 49.7 percent hard-hit rate, comfortably above average.

Though he isn't hitting for power yet, he is still regularly impacting the ball.

His barrel rate isn't half bad either: while 9.3 percent isn't elite, it's comfortably around league-average.

These numbers don't tell the full story, but they're strong vital signs the most proven way to be a productive hitter is to regularly hit the ball hard.Now, why isn't Dominguez hitting for power? It's a tricky question to answer, in no small part because of the relatively small sample size.

Jasson has been in the public eye for nearly six years, but has only spent tiny fragments of that time as a big leaguer.

We who only have access to public-side data don't yet have a great grasp of what makes him tick.

But it's hard not to factor his lack of performance against left-handed pitching into this conversation.Part of what made Dominguez's performance so exceptional on Wednesday night was the fact that he picked up two hits from the right side of the plate.

That was the exception to the rule this year as he's only managed a .611 OPS as a righty compared to a .796 clip as a lefty.

Those platoon splits have actually gotten quite a bit closer to each other as the year has progressed, indicating that all is not lost for him as a true switch-hitter.

But for our purposes, his .314 slugging percentage and just one home run as a righty is still anemic.

That said, his one right-handed homer featured his highest exit velocity on a home run this year, so it feels premature to conclude that he can't hit for power from that side of the plate.

Let's expand the sample past 81 plate appearances before we make any declarative statements.Here's a different stat which may be more instructive.

While Dominguez has an above-average fly ball rate and pulls the ball at a decent clip, he has rarely combined the two simultaneously.

Pulling the ball in the air is a huge key towards hitting for power: just ask MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh, who has done so at a 37.5 percent clip, the highest rate in the league.

Dominguez's pull-air rate currently sits at a hair below 14 percent, which is below average.

All six of his homers this year have gone to his pull side.

If he can start to access his pull-side pop more, that could go a long way towards consistent power production.Of course, it's very easy to sit here and say that as somebody thumbing through stats online.

It's much harder to make the necessary adjustments to become a strong pull-side hitter.

And this is where we run into the small sample quandary again.

Are Dominguez's strengths as a hitter conducive to pulling the ball in the air a bunch? How much would he have to overhaul his current approach which has been successful! to pursue those better power numbers? If he does make those changes, might we see other parts of his game suffer as a result?It's hard to know the answers to those questions just three months into his first full big-league season, but it is comforting to know that even without prodigious power, Jasson Dominguez is achieving success in MLB right now.

We know he has the ability to go deep he possesses tremendous raw power that virtually nobody his size can claim.

If and when the home run barrage arrives, it should be interesting to see which adjustments he made to finally tap into that most tantalizing tool..

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