ANAHEIM, Calif. — Two homers in two days. Spencer Jones has spent much of his rookie season giving the Yankees reasons to keep looking past the rough edges.
The strikeouts are still there. So are the moments in the outfield that remind everyone he is learning the major leagues in real time. But the power, speed and willingness to adjust have started to change the calculation around him as September arrives.
That shift became difficult to ignore at Angel Stadium. Jones homered in Monday’s 10-1 loss, then struck again Tuesday with a two-run shot in the first inning of a 7-3 Yankees win. He finished the second game 2-for-3 with two walks, three RBIs, two runs and a stolen base.
For the Yankees, his two-game burst matters because Jones is no longer merely filling space while the roster waits for Aaron Judge. His at-bats are beginning to force a harder question about how much playing time the rookie should keep once the lineup gets healthier.
Jones reached the majors May 8 and has been promoted three times. Since his latest recall July 26, he has stabilized a profile once dominated by swing-and-miss. Through Tuesday, he was hitting .245/.320/.451 with nine homers, 28 RBIs and nine steals.
The improvement has not erased his flaws. Jones has 72 strikeouts in 206 plate appearances, and Monday included a late read on a shallow fly ball that became a double. The Yankees have still rewarded his adjustments.
The Yankees have also kept testing him in situations that once looked like obvious trouble spots, particularly against left-handed pitching and with runners on base. Those results are beginning to change how his rookie season is evaluated.
That is what made this particular road stop so loaded with irony. Long before the Yankees made Jones a first-round pick, the Angels had already put his name on a draft card.
Angels saw Jones first, but made a mistake
Los Angeles selected Jones in the 31st round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of La Costa Canyon High School. MLB’s draft archive listed the 6-foot-7 teenager as an outfielder and left-handed pitcher, reflecting the two-way upside the Angels saw.
Jones did not sign. He chose Vanderbilt instead, a decision that reshaped his baseball path. Advice from an unidentified scout stayed with him through the draft process.
“Some of the best advice I ever got as a high school kid was, ‘If you have any questions or concerns about professional baseball, go to college first,’” Jones said to Daily News.
That advice became his own conclusion.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m not ready for professional baseball.’”
The Angels’ what-if is not that they failed to identify him. They did. It is that a 31st-round selection could not pull him away from Vanderbilt, and the player who emerged there was different from the two-way prospect they drafted.
Two-way plan disappeared, but bat survived
Jones had dealt with a small fracture in his pitching elbow as a high school senior. MLB Pipeline says he later underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2020 after his freshman season at Vanderbilt and became a full-time hitter.
The injury reinforced why college had appealed to him. Jones called it a reminder of “how fragile my body is” and why he wanted an education if baseball did not work out.
By his junior season, the hesitation about pro ball was gone. The Yankees selected him 25th overall in 2022 and signed him for a reported $2.88 million.
Seven years later, Jones turned that old fork in the road into baseball irony. His homer Monday supplied the Yankees’ only run. His two-run drive Tuesday put New York ahead before Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with another homer.
Boone sees adaptability behind Yankees rookie surge
Aaron Boone’s interest goes beyond the home runs. After Monday’s blowout loss, the Yankees manager pointed to the way Jones has adjusted to pitchers and to his own weaknesses.
“It’s been good. Really encouraging. I’ve used the word adaptability. He’s shown some real awareness of strengths and weaknesses, his own and who he’s facing. He’s done a good job for us. And obviously got a couple good swings off today. First at-bat smokes the ball to second for the lineout, and then obviously hits the homer. So he’s done a good job,” Boone said.
The numbers support Boone’s point. StatMuse lists Jones with a .771 OPS and 114 wRC+ through Tuesday. He is also batting .400 with a .475 on-base percentage and .686 slugging percentage against left-handed pitching.
A road split adds another layer to Angels series
StatMuse splits show Jones has played 33 games at home and 33 on the road. Seven of his nine home runs have come away from Yankee Stadium, meaning 77.8% of his major league homers have been hit on the road.
His situational production is also notable. Jones is hitting .323 with runners on base and .324 with runners in scoring position, with slugging percentages of .629 and .588 in those spots.
Those are small samples, but they address two questions that followed him from the minors: whether his swing-and-miss profile could survive left-handed pitching and whether his power would translate into useful production.
An old Angels decision now sits inside Yankees roster question
The Yankees improved to 79-60 Tuesday and remained 4.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, according to MLB’s standings. They held a four-game edge over Boston for the top AL wild card.
That postseason pressure is why Jones’ timing matters. The Yankees must soon decide how much outfield playing time he keeps once Judge returns.
Jones has said he would have seriously considered signing in 2019 if he had been drafted higher. Vanderbilt instead gave him the time he believed he needed before pro ball.
“I needed Vanderbilt and I needed Nashville and I needed all those life experiences to get me into pro ball, and now we’re here in a much better spot.”
The Angels once imagined Jones as a two-way project. The Yankees eventually drafted the hitter who emerged after that path disappeared. This week, Los Angeles has watched that version circle the bases twice.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
