The top prospect made a short walk from his Spring Training locker in the home clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner Field on a warm, clear Monday afternoon, settling into a chair inside Aaron Boone’s office.
Putting on his best acting chops, the Yankees manager launched into a preamble about how this was going to be a difficult conversation. It proved to be anything but. Anthony Volpe’s terrific play had “kicked the door in” to earn a trip north, making his Major League debut as the starting shortstop in 2023.
Spencer Jones could have a moment like that soon.
The Yankees’ No. 4 prospect and No. 99 overall according to MLB Pipeline, the 6-foot-7 slugger projects to enter this spring as a legitimate candidate to break camp with the club. Though the picture can change, he’s currently set to compete against Jasson Domínguez for a starting role in the Bronx Bombers’ outfield.
“He’s this untapped potential situation that’s done everything he needs to do thus far to put himself in the position to get into a Major League ballpark and say, ‘This spot is mine,’” general manager Brian Cashman recently told MLB Network Radio.
Coming off a season in which he hit .274 (120-for-438) with 35 homers and 80 RBIs across 116 Minor League games, Jones – who turns 25 in May – was added to the 40-man roster in November and used Yankee Stadium’s facilities for portions of his winter workouts.
Boone encountered Jones there several times, reporting that the club’s first-round selection in the 2022 MLB Draft (25th overall) seemed to be “in a really good frame of mind.”
“He handled his business at the Minor League level,” Boone said. “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.”
After working on swing changes during Spring Training that Jones said helped him feel “dangerous,” Jones enjoyed his most consistent season as a pro – a key development, considering Cashman acknowledged Jones’ 2024 performance prompted “some trepidation and concern” internally.
Jones opened 2025 with Double-A Somerset, where he batted .274 (48-for-175) with 16 home runs and 32 RBIs in 49 games before being promoted in late June.
With Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he batted .274 (72-for-263) with 19 homers and 48 RBIs in 67 games, logging most of his playing time in center field.
“Being able to be more consistent month-to-month, that was the biggest thing for me,” Jones told SNY in early December, when he attended the Italian American Baseball Foundation’s gala event in the Bronx.
There remains significant swing-and-miss in Jones’ game, though he trimmed his strikeout rate slightly from 2024 to ’25.
After whiffing 200 times in 544 plate appearances in 2024 (36.7%), Jones reduced that total to 179 strikeouts in 506 plate appearances (35.3%) in ’25 and believes there is more progress to be made.
“I changed some stuff with my swing, learned a lot about it,” Jones said. “Going into this offseason is just cleaning up some of the things that went wrong.”
The Yanks’ outfield projects to feature Aaron Judge in right field and Trent Grisham in center field, with Domínguez the presumed front-runner to grab playing time in left field, depending on the club’s pursuit of free agent Cody Bellinger.
But if it winds up being Domínguez vs. Jones, the Yankees will be watching closely – especially if Jones sends a few balls screaming toward Dale Mabry Highway during the spring.
Any strikeouts represent a tradeoff the Yankees may be tempted to live with in exchange for Jones’ light-tower power, which has drawn comparisons to a left-handed Judge dating back to the day he entered the organization.
Jones said his mission for the spring is simple.
“Trying to prove to them every reason why you should be there,” he said. “Being as competitive as possible and showing them how bad you want it, that’s important. That’s going to be my job going into camp.”