How do the New York Yankees feel about Spencer Jones?
New York Yankees outfielder Spencer Jones finally made his big-league debut last month, playing in 10 games before being sent back down to Triple-A.
Jones did not exactly light it up during his brief stint with the Yankees, and he looked very uncomfortable against major-league pitching.
Given his penchant for striking out in the minor leagues, the fact that he was also flailing against MLB pitchers should not come as too much of a surprise.
But did that change New York's opinion on Jones?
Brendan Kuty of The Athletic was asked about that in a recent mailbag, and he provided a pretty firm answer.
"No. In Jones’ first trip to the majors in May, he batted .167 (4-for-24) with no extra-base hits and 12 strikeouts with three walks. He whiffed on 38.6 percent of the swings he took. Lots of strikeouts and whiffs lead to a low batting average. The Yankees would expect the power to come in a more consistent role, but Jones’ struggles weren’t exactly stunning despite his high ceiling," Kuty wrote.
New York Yankees outfielder Spencer Jones. Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.Kuty didn't exactly build a case for Jones in rattling off his statistics, as the 25-year-old managed a measly .426 OPS over 27 plate appearances.
But that was obviously an incredibly small sample size.
Jones is slashing .261/.369/.585 with 13 home runs and 46 RBI across 168 trips to the dish in Triple-A this season and is on pace to have another tremendous campaign in the Yankees' farm system. Last year, he bashed 35 homers and posted a .932 OPS between Double-A and Triple-A.
The question is whether or not the hulking 6-foot-7 slugger will ever cut it in the majors.
Jones' strikeout rate (32.8 percent across five minor-league seasons) is obviously concerning, and you have to figure that number will increase in regular at-bats against big-league pitching.
But so long as Jones walks and hits for power, his abundance of strikeouts will be mitigated. Or perhaps the Vanderbilt product will cut down his swing even further and make his punchout rate more palatable.
Whatever the case may be, New York still surely has hope for Jones, but there is also little doubt that time is running out for the former first-round pick to actually make an impact with the Yankees' major-league squad.
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