A top New York Yankees prospect has been the subject of trade rumors. He may soon trade his Triple-A jersey in for a big league uniform. Spencer Jones continued his monthlong tear, crushing three home runs in the first five innings for the Scranton Wilkes/Barre RailRiders against the Rochester Red Wings at Innovative Field on Thursday.
All three blasts came off Red Wings starter Bryce Conley. Jones finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs, though Rochester won 10-8 in front of a home crowd that witnessed one of the hottest hitters in minor league baseball.
The 6-foot-7, 240-pound lefty went opposite field for his first two home runs. Jones hit a solo shot shot on an 0-2 pitch in the first inning. He had a multihomer game by the third inning, launching another solo homer on a full count. Jones hammered a two-run 433-foot bomb to straightaway center field in the fifth inning.
Jones, 24, has 13 home runs in 19 games since being promoted to Triple-A on June 27, along with a scorching .400 batting average and 1.407 OPS.
MLB Network insider Jon Heyman posted on X that “Jones is too good for that league!”
He may not be in it much longer. With the Yankees needing help at third base and pitching at the trade deadline, Jones has been floated in speculation surrounding a deal for Arizona third baseman Eugenio Suárez. CBS Sports listed him as a top-10 potential trade riser this week.
Jones said he hopes to stay in pinstripes.
“I want to play in New York and be a part of this organization and stay loyal to it. That’s a big part of who I am and where I want to go in my career,” Jones said, according to The Athletic. “There was a post of me hitting a home run and one of the comments was, ‘Get ready to speak desert, buddy.’ That’s a really good one. I saw that and was dying laughing. That is just so good. To me, that’s the really fun part about baseball at this time of year. I really like the creativity that fans have. It’s awesome. I don’t know if I can speak desert.”
Jones, selected No. 25 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft, began the season with Double-A Somerset. His 29 home runs lead all of minor league baseball this season.
Making contact has been his biggest challenge. He set a Yankees minor league record with 200 last season, and his career MiLB strikeout rate remains at 31.5%.
Jones is ranked No. 2 in the Yankees system by ESPN and No. 4 by MLB Pipeline. Baseball America says he’ll return to its Top 100 list when it updates rankings on July 28.
The Yankees’ first-round pick out of Vanderbilt was once a two-way prospect before undergoing Tommy John surgery in college.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yankees prospect Spencer Jones on fire: Could a big league call-up be next?
Reporting by Ryan Miller, New York Connect Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
