NEW YORK — The night before Jasson Dominguez left Globe Life Field with a numb left arm and a trip to the MRI machine on his schedule, Spencer Jones was in Moosic, Pennsylvania, launching a baseball 424 feet to dead center field.
The timing was not lost on Yankees fans.
Jones crushed two home runs Tuesday night for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a 9-6 win over Buffalo, his first multi-homer game of 2026. His first shot measured 106.3 mph off the bat. His second clocked in at 107.1 mph and landed in dead center. Both came at critical moments. The first answered a five-run Buffalo first inning. The second added insurance in the eighth.
Twenty-four hours later, Dominguez was walking off a baseball field holding his elbow after taking an 89 mph cutter from Nathan Eovaldi flush on the inside of the joint. X-rays were inconclusive. An MRI was scheduled for Thursday in New York.
One name immediately began circulating in Yankees circles.
The prospect the Yankees have been building toward
Spencer Jones is the kind of player the Yankees organization has talked about carefully and patiently for three years. At 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, the left-handed slugger from Carlsbad, California is a physical outlier in a sport full of elite athletes. He was drafted 25th overall out of Vanderbilt in 2022 and signed for $2,880,800. General manager Brian Cashman said before this season that Jones was in the conversation to become an everyday big-league contributor in 2026.
In 2025, Jones split the year between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and hit .274 with 35 home runs, 29 stolen bases and a .933 OPS across both levels. His 35 home runs were second-most in all of minor league baseball. The only knock on his resume has never changed. He struck out at a 35.3 percent clip last season.
This year the numbers tell the same story in both directions. Through 26 games at Triple-A in 2026, Jones is slashing .231/.351/.500 with seven home runs and 24 RBI. The walk rate is strong. The power is undeniable. But he has struck out in 37.2 percent of his plate appearances. Tuesday night’s two-homer performance, featuring two of the hardest-hit balls seen in any minor league game this week, was exactly the kind of reminder of what Jones brings when he connects.
What the Dominguez injury means for the Yankees roster
Dominguez was just called up Monday. The Yankees DFA’d Randal Grichuk on Wednesday morning specifically to open a clear path for the 23-year-old to get regular at-bats while Giancarlo Stanton serves out his 10-day IL assignment with a right calf strain. Losing Dominguez to the IL now would create a roster gap the Yankees would need to fill quickly.
The most obvious option would not be Jones. Not immediately. The Yankees are expected to keep Max Schuemann on the active roster for the next several days until Anthony Volpe returns from his rehab assignment for a shoulder injury. Once Volpe is activated, Schuemann goes back to Triple-A. That would be the natural moment for a Jones call-up if Dominguez’s MRI reveals structural damage.
Sporting News reported Thursday that Yankees fans are eagerly awaiting Jones’ MLB debut. But the organization’s preference will be to wait for clarity on Dominguez’s results before making any moves. If the MRI comes back clean and Dominguez is available for the Orioles series starting Friday, the call-up pressure eases. If not, the Yankees will need to act quickly.
Jones as a fit for this Yankees roster
There is one complication the Yankees cannot ignore. Jones is a left-handed hitter. So are Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge. The Yankees currently have three lefty outfield starters and a left-handed DH in Dominguez. Jones starting against a left-handed pitcher would create a lineup stacked on one side of the plate.
The more realistic deployment, if Jones is called up, would be as a right-handed matchup option or a DH against right-handed starters. The Yankees can also use Paul Goldschmidt at first base and slide Ben Rice to DH when the lineup demands flexibility. Jones would fit into that construction even without a permanent everyday role.
For now, everything depends on Thursday’s MRI. If it shows a fracture or ligament damage in Dominguez’s left elbow, the Yankees will be making a call within 24 hours. Jones hit two of the hardest balls in the International League this week. He will be ready if the phone rings.
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