The immediate comparison is probably to Gary Sanchez, who made the heartbeat of Yankees fans and executives go all aflutter when the-then 23-year-old catcher was promoted to The Bronx in August 2016 as part of a reset during the last season the team failed to qualify for the playoffs. 

Sanchez, who’d been part of the organization for six years after signing as an amateur free agent, was a revelation. He — and not Aaron Judge, who followed 10 days later — appeared to be the franchise’s crown jewel while smacking 20 home runs in 52 games, driving in 42 runs and slashing .299/.376/.657 with a 1.032 OPS. 

He finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting to Detroit starting pitcher Michael Fulmer despite having played only one-third of the season. The future appeared limitless. But Sanchez, his game and his future in pinstripes proved quite limited. 

Then there is this one out of 2011, when the Yankees promoted then 21-year-old catcher Jesus Montero to the club as part of September mass call-ups as the team prepared for the playoffs. 

He hit two home runs against the Orioles on Labor Day at the Stadium for which he was accorded a pair of curtain calls. That was his fourth big-league game. He crushed the ball throughout his cameo, slashing .328/.406/.590 with a .966 OPS and a 163 OPS-plus with four homers and 12 RBIs in 18 games. 

The future seemed limitless. Three months after taking those curtain call, the curtain fell on Montero’s Yankees career when he was traded to Seattle as part of a package in exchange for starting pitcher Michael Pineda. The young man was out of the majors for good only four years later. 

You never really can be sure, can you? 

A dozen years to the day following Montero’s showstopping performance, the spotlight was trained on 20-year-old Jasson Dominguez, who has become the face of the Yankees’ youth movement following his fast-tracked promotion to the majors. 

Called up last Friday after only nine games and 31 at-bats in Triple-A following his first full year at the Double-A level, the center fielder crushed a pair of home runs in the Yankees’ three-game weekend sweep in Houston. 

On Tuesday, slipping into No. 89 in pinstripes for his Stadium debut, Dominguez went 1-for-4 with an eighth-inning double after striking out and rapping into a couple of force plays as the Yankees won for the seventh time in the last eight games, this one 5-1 over the Tigers. 

Even before his first at-bat or first play in the field, Dominguez ingratiated himself with the home folks when he responded to his first Bleacher Creatures’ roll call by putting his hands together and raising one finger in the air in mimicking “E.T.” 

The Martian, get it? 

“E.T.,” the Spielberg film, was released in 1982. That was 21 years before Dominguez was born. He has not seen the movie. Translator Marlon Abreu suggested going with this unique response. 

If Dominguez has a skill set that’s out of this world (hence, the nickname), he certainly seems grounded and uncommonly poised. He was low-key in addressing the press after the contest. He has handled the whirlwind magnificently while going 4-for-17 over his first four games. 

“It is still the same baseball, but with many differences [like] having so many more fans and a lot of excitement,” he said through Abreu. “But I think after the first couple of days, I’ve been able to bring down the excitement and kind of enjoy it more. 

“It’s been great.” 

This not only represented Dominguez’s first game in The Bronx, but his first visit to the Stadium. He was appreciative but not awed. 

“He seems to have such a good disposition,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I think it’s great when you come up and have the weekend he did where he gets his first hits and home runs and gets the nerves out of the way.” 

The Yankees signed the native of the Dominican Republic in 2019 when he was 16 years old to a free agent contract that featured a record international bonus of $5.1 million. There was all sorts of hype. 

The drumbeat has been as steady as Dominguez’s progress. No one could have envisioned a scenario in which he could have made his major league debut this year. But no one envisioned this crash-and-burn. 

The Yankees needed to change the conversation. Badly. They have. There is a prospect to savor. 

“We just want to see continued growth,” Boone said of Dominguez, who had impressed everyone at spring training. “He’s a young, young man, 20 years old, and we’ve known about him now for a number of years. He’s come with huge expectations and I feel like he’s handled that really well.” 

Once there was Sanchez. Before him, Montero. Before them, Joba Chamberlain in 2007, the last prospect so dramatically fast-tracked by the organization. He was a phenom. And he, too, seemed to have a limitless future. There was a limit. 

You never really know, do you?