HOUSTON — The day Jasson Domínguez signed his first professional contract, the outfielder returned to his academy in the Dominican Republic and gave all his equipment away to his teammates.

With a $5.1 million deal freshly inked, Domínguez, only 16 at the time, could afford new bats and gloves. Still, that act spoke to why the Yankees were willing to invest such a lump sum of money on a kid barely old enough to drive.

When you’re talking about contracts that big, skills aren’t the only thing taken into consideration.

“What I didn’t know the first day I saw him, but I learned over time, was that his makeup was just absolutely off the charts,” Donny Rowland, the Yankees’ director of international amateur scouting, told the Daily News. “Very humble, engaging, friendly, never wanting to attract attention to himself. When you’d give him a compliment, he would kind of give you a sheepish grin and shake his head back and forth. Never about himself. Always about the game and always about his teammates.”

Rowland, who played an instrumental part in bringing Domínguez into the Yankees organization, believes that that makeup will aid the 20-year-old well as he embarks on his major league journey. Domínguez, batting fifth and playing centerfield, made his major league debut in Houston on Friday as the Yankees opened a three-game set with the Astros. He homered off Justin Verlander in his first at-bat.

While Domínguez looked perfectly comfortable in his debut, he said that his promotion came as a bit of a surprise after just nine games at Triple-A.

“I didn’t think I was gonna get here so fast,” Domínguez said, though he did set a goal for reaching The Show by age 20 or 21 in February. “It didn’t really cross my mind.

“I was just really focused on what I was doing, being present in playing my game and then concentrating on what I was doing at the time. So it really never crossed my mind that there was a chance or a possibility.”

The Yankees are in the midst of a lost season, so calling up Domínguez, Austin Wells and others gives them a chance to evaluate for 2024 while drawing some eyeballs. Domínguez’s highly-anticipated arrival is something that Yankees fans have been waiting for ever since “The Martian” received comparisons to Mike Trout and Mickey Mantle as a teenager.

Of course, those comparisons and some of the expectations that have been placed on Domínguez over the years have been a bit much given his age. But Rowland, who has known the Yankees’ second-best prospect since he was 14, believes Domínguez has taken those lofty projections in stride while quickly climbing the minor league ranks.

“The hype started a year before he signed, and none of those comparisons came from us,” Rowland said. “The whole Martian thing came from another team, not from us. We would never do those things or make those comparisons, and it’s obviously unfair to him and it’s unfair to the players he was compared to. Some unfair expectations, some really out of this world hype that he’s handled tremendously.”

Aaron Boone agreed with that assessment, stating that the “easy-going” Domínguez “doesn’t seem affected by much.”

“Which is a trait that will serve him well,” the manager continued, adding that Domínguez’s play doesn’t impact his mood. “He’s kind of the same guy. That’s been his reputation down there. Plays the game with a smile on his face.”

All the excitement surrounding Domínguez could put pressure on a person, especially one who is so young. But he said that he’s tried to avoid the fanfare that has followed him since he was 16.

With that said, he certainly wants to live up to the hype.

“To be honest, I haven’t really been paying too much attention to all the comments and all the information about me,” Domínguez said. “I’m not much into social media. I’m not reading a lot of the different articles that are written. I try to just focus on what I can do and play my game and better myself so that I can fulfill whatever expectation there is.”

Anthony Volpe, the Yankees’ 22-year-old rookie shortstop, went through a similar experience when trying to earn his job in spring training. Yankees fans were clamoring for him to make the team, and reporters covered his every move.

But Volpe told the News, “It was never too hard for me to tune it out.”

“I definitely didn’t have [the attention] as early or as crazy as maybe Jasson did, but for me, it was just kind of weird,” Volpe said. “Like I never really read into anything good or bad.”

Aaron Judge, meanwhile, debuted under similar team circumstances when the Yankees turned their attention toward the future in 2016. He was a top prospect, though he was not as highly rated as Domínguez.

The captain’s advice to his new teammate?

“Just keep your head down and don’t listen,” Judge told The News. “People will make expectations or set ceilings for you and all these crazy dreams, but you never know what’s gonna happen. I think that’s the cool part about it: people can say this guy could be the next future Hall of Famer, and he can maybe exceed those expectations. I never like putting guys in a box. He’s a special talent that I’m excited to see go out there and just play the game.”

Playing time won’t be hard for Domínguez to come by, which means the Yankees and those cheering them on will have plenty of chances to see the tools that “made the hair on my arm stand up,” Rowland recalled.

Domínguez figures to be the Yankees’ regular centerfielder the rest of the way. If all goes according to plan, he’ll fill that role next season, too.

“We’ll see how it goes and see how that development goes and that journey goes,” Boone said, trying to temper expectations for Domínguez for a change. “But I think he has a chance to be a very good player.”