Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
Just in case you didn’t hear, apparently the Yankees are signing a teenager who’ll take Major League Baseball by storm in a few years (he’s in the international free agency class of 2027). Sarcasm aside, hey, it’s possible he will. He sounds insanely talented. I just think it’s stupid — and does a major disservice to to the kid, more importantly — to slap labels like this on a teenager.
To what am I referring? Well, the Yankees have reportedly come to an agreement for an international signing of a kid by the name of Sebastián Acuña. He’s a teenage catcher who has been described as having “the power of Aaron Judge, the speed of Elly De La Cruz and the defense of Yadier Molina.”
That’s it? What’s wrong with him? Why can’t he also pitch like prime Pedro Martinez, stop a speeding bullet and leap tall buildings in a single bound?
Good grief.
These kids (because yes, they are kids) have enough pressure and, especially here in the internet era, the burden is totally undue and can ruin their public reputations if they fail to set the proverbial world on fire nearly immediately stateside.
Take Jasson Domínguez. Think about him for a second. Do you get positive vibes or does he feel a bit disappointing, even to the point of the word “bust” bouncing around in your head?
Domínguez turned 23 years old earlier this month and has hit .248/.327/.397 (103 OPS+) with 16 home runs and 29 steals in just 529 career MLB plate appearances. In comparison, 2025 NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin hadn’t even made his MLB debut when he turned 23? He debuted two days before his 24th birthday.
Heading into Domínguez’s age-23 year, he is largely considered a disappointment, especially to Yankees fans. Heading into Baldwin’s age-24 year, he had never played in the majors and was considered promising.
The difference? Expectations.
A scout told a prominent MLB writer in 2019 that Domínguez is “like [Mike] Trout,” only “Trout wasn’t close to this good when he was 16.” Another invoked the name of Mickey Mantle. They called him The Martian.
Domínguez debuted late in the 2023 season and homered in his first game. He went 8 for 27 with a double and four home runs through his first seven career games. Team that with the insane Trout/Mantle comps, and now the expectations for this kid were at damn near impossible levels.
Domínguez still has years (and years) of time to develop into a quality MLB player. He didn’t need this nonsense hanging over his head — just the same as Acuña.
What a start to expectations, huh? We’ve got people dreaming of a Judge/Elly/Yadi hybrid.
Man, he better be one of the best players we’ve ever seen pretty much from the start, right? No pressure.
Everyone should just tap the brakes a little bit here. Sebastián Acuña will hopefully be a great MLB player for a long time. He probably won’t be Judge or De La Cruz or Molina. He almost certainly won’t be all of them combined. He’ll be the first Sebastián Acuña.