TAMPA, Fla. — Spencer Jones spent the offseason doing everything right. The Yankees prized rookie reported to Steinbrenner Field early. He put in extra work at Yankee Stadium. He overhauled his swing mechanics, ditching the leg kick for a toe tap in an effort to clean up contact issues that have dogged him since he turned pro.
And yet, two days into live batting practice this spring, the same old red flags surfaced. Jones struck out against Yerry de los Santos. He struck out against Drake Fellows, a 28-year-old career minor leaguer. Observers on social media noted his stance looked stiff and unnatural in the batter’s box.
For a franchise that has not won a World Series in 17 years, the Yankees may be running out of patience. And that is exactly why this could be the perfect window to move Jones before his trade value erodes any further.
A blocked outfield leaves Jones with no clear path to the Bronx
The Yankees re-signed Cody Bellinger to a five-year, $162.5 million contract this winter. Trent Grisham accepted the qualifying offer and will earn $22 million in 2026. Aaron Judge is entrenched in right field as the three-time AL MVP and team captain.
That trio combined for 116 home runs in 2025. All three are locked in as starters.
Then there is Jasson Dominguez, the switch-hitting outfielder who spent all of 2025 in the big leagues and posted a .257/.331/.388 slash line across 429 plate appearances. Dominguez brings elite arm strength and speed, and the organization still views him as a long-term piece. Giancarlo Stanton remains the designated hitter.
Where does Jones fit? The honest answer is that he does not. Not right now. Not in any meaningful everyday role. And for a 24-year-old who turns 25 in May and has nothing left to prove in the minor leagues, waiting another year in Triple-A could damage his development more than it helps.
Jones’ 35-homer season keeps his trade stock alive
The case for selling high on Jones centers on one number: 35. That is how many home runs the 6-foot-7 left-handed slugger hit between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2025. He also stole 29 bases and posted a .933 OPS across 116 games. His July alone at Triple-A was absurd. He hit .419 with 11 homers and a 1.423 OPS that month, earning International League Player of the Month honors.
Jones slashed .274/.362/.571 overall and showed a 153 wRC+, meaning he was 53 percent better than the average hitter at his level. He logged 16 home runs in just 49 games at Somerset before his promotion. At Scranton, he hit .274 with 19 more blasts in 67 games.
That raw production still carries weight around baseball. Jones remains an MLB Pipeline top-100 prospect at No. 99 overall and the Yankees’ No. 4 prospect. His power and speed combination at his frame is rare. Comparisons to a left-handed Aaron Judge have followed him since draft day in 2022, when the Yankees selected him 25th overall out of Vanderbilt.
According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees refused to include Jones in any trade package at the 2025 deadline unless the return was someone like Paul Skenes. That asking price was always unrealistic. But the underlying message was clear: the organization valued Jones highly enough to hold firm.
The question is whether that valuation still matches reality.
The strikeout problem that haunts Jones has only grown louder
Here is the other side of the ledger. Jones struck out 179 times in 506 plate appearances in 2025. That is a 35.4 percent strikeout rate. In 2024, it was even worse: 200 whiffs in 544 plate appearances for a 36.7 percent clip. His career minor league strikeout rate sits around 33 to 35 percent.
ESPN’s Aiden Gonzalez called 2026 “a crucial year” for Jones and noted that a Yankees source described him as having “a wide variance to his game,” which Gonzalez called “a polite way of saying he needs to cut down his strikeouts so that his power can truly emerge.”
Brian Cashman himself acknowledged after the 2024 season that Jones’ performance had prompted “some trepidation and concern” internally. The swing-and-miss issues are not new. They have simply not gone away despite multiple mechanical adjustments.
Most damning? The early spring training footage. Jones looked uncomfortable against his own teammates in live batting practice sessions this week. His new no-leg-kick approach appeared stiff. The strikeouts against de los Santos and Fellows only amplified the doubts.
As Pinstripe Alley noted, the Yankees and Jones have reached a crossroads. The team views him at a higher price than the rest of the league is willing to pay. Other clubs see the strikeout risk and are not going to buy at the Yankees’ inflated valuation. If that gap continues to widen, the return in any future trade only shrinks.
Why the Yankees should act now rather than wait
The calculus is straightforward. Jones’ trade value peaked during his scorching July in 2025. It has cooled since his back injury and the ugly second-half slide that followed. But the 35-homer headline still carries enough shine to fetch something meaningful in a deal.
The Yankees need pitching depth. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon are both recovering from elbow surgery and will not be ready until May or June at the earliest. Clarke Schmidt is out until at least August. The Opening Day rotation of Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Luis Gil is solid but thin on insurance. A trade package built around Jones could bring back a controllable arm or a reliever with big league experience.
Meanwhile, Jones himself still believes his debut is coming.
“Trying to prove to them every reason why you should be there,” he said earlier this month. “Being as competitive as possible and showing them how bad you want it, that’s important.”
Manager Aaron Boone has acknowledged the talent, too.
“He handled his business at the Minor League level,” Boone told MLB.com. “Now he comes in with probably a more realistic look. Whether it’s to start the season or not, we’ll see, but it’s probably a more realistic look to where he’s now knocking on the door of the big leagues.”
But knocking on a door and walking through it are two very different things. The Yankees have Judge, Bellinger and Grisham locked in. Dominguez is ahead of Jones on the depth chart. The outfield is full. And every spring training at-bat that ends in a strikeout makes the argument for keeping Jones a little harder to defend.
Cashman has already given his verdict. No roster vacancy.
The boom-or-bust label has defined Jones since he entered pro ball. Right now, the Yankees can still sell the boom. If they wait much longer, they may be stuck with the bust. The time to deal Spencer Jones is now.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
He had some success with the leg kick. Was it his decision or the teams to change? Go back to what is comfortable. Hate seeing him struggle!
Cashman “swings and misses” more often than Jones does. So expect another stupid trade for a rental who doesn’t pan out.