Referring to any non-Aaron Decide participant as “Aaron Decide” in a single type or one other is much less of a moniker and extra of a title, one which deserves defending. Up till June, that is one title that Yankees minor leaguer Spencer Jones didn’t fairly stay as much as.
Dubbed the “left-handed Aaron Decide” due to his immense energy, Jones had solely matched (and exceeded) one of many many features of Decide’s sport (apart from the 6-foot-7 peak): the sky-high strikeout totals. Final season, Jones hit .259/.366/.452 with 17 dwelling runs in 482 at-bats. His unexciting stat line was accompanied by a staggering 200 strikeouts, a Yankees’ minor league record. The principle subject with Jones’ efficiency was that his energy was robbed of its potential because of his incapability to make contact.
To start out 2025, it was wanting like the identical story. Jones was bumped from MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list to start out the yr, discovered himself whiffing at an unchanged tempo and watched as his trade value declined together with his poor numbers. Then, in June, every little thing modified.
Squabbling to a .214 common in Double-A as just lately as June 11, he would rapidly catch fireplace, bringing his lowly batting common as much as .274 by June 26. He was then promoted to Triple-A, the place he’s hitting to a staggering .385/.469/.846 stat line with 5 dwelling runs in simply 10 video games. His strikeouts are nonetheless off-putting (15), however Jones is now giving us a glimpse of his large potential.
On the yr throughout each ranges of the minors, Jones is hitting .294/.405/.640 in 214 at-bats. His 21 dwelling runs this season are already a profession excessive in fewer than half the at-bats it took him to succeed in his earlier profession excessive of 17. As well as, he has stolen 14 bases in 16 makes an attempt.
On the verge of posting profession highs all throughout the board, Jones is wanting greater than prepared for his MLB debut, although with a crowded outfield of Decide, Cody Bellinger, Jasson Dominguez and Trent Grisham, squeezing him onto the roster presents a problem. Nonetheless, hitting at his present tempo, there is no such thing as a method the Yankees can ignore him.
