NEW YORK - Spencer Jones spent Friday looking like a player who belongs, even if the Yankees’ roster math says that might not last.
He had the Players’ Weekend belt, a white one covered in his own mug shots. He had the game-changing swing, too, launching his second homer in as many nights in two different cities in a 3-1 win over the Blue Jays. And he had a defensive moment that nearly turned into a highlight for the ages, when he snow-coned a ball, lost it as he hit the ground and then scrambled in vain to finish what he thought would have been his “greatest ever” catch.
“It was like slow motion,” Jones said.
The homer, in his view, was the biggest he has ever hit. It gave AL Cy Young favorite Cam Schlittler a 2-0 second-inning lead and kept Jones squarely in the middle of a roster conversation the Yankees may not be able to avoid for long.
That conversation is simple enough on paper: Spencer Jones or Giancarlo Stanton for the stretch run?
NJ.com asked three major-league scouts that exact hypothetical late Friday night, and all three leaned the same way.
Scout 1: “Spencer. Stanton is so far behind.”
Scout 2: “Spencer Jones. He offers more.
He can play defense, he can run and he can hit a fastball versus a right-hander pitcher. Stanton can hit the long ball, but he’s a big liability and he offers ZERO with the glove!”
Scout 3: “I’d go with Spencer Jones. The kid is healthy and playing well. I think it would difficult for Stanton to make an impact missing as much time as he has.”
The logic is hard to ignore. Stanton has been out since April with a low-grade calf strain suffered while jogging from first to second on a walk in Houston, and Friday marked his 101st consecutive Yankees game missed. Aaron Boone said recently that Stanton is near the end of his running program, which suggests a rehab assignment could begin soon - or maybe not soon at all, because with Stanton, timing has a way of drifting.
Jones, meanwhile, keeps giving the Yankees reasons to keep him around. He is hitting .229 in 55 games, but he has seven homers and 21 RBI.
He has also delivered in spots that matter, batting .308 with runners in scoring position, tied for second best on the team. And he has not hurt them on the bases, going 7-for-7 in stolen-base attempts.
On top of that, the scouts’ point about his defense isn’t empty praise; Jones may already be the Yankees’ second-best defensive outfielder after Cody Bellinger.
Still, the Yankees may never make the choice the scouts would make.
Jones can be optioned, and that may end up being the path even though he has a strong case to stay. He looks more deserving than Stanton, and the same argument can be made over bench player Amed Rosario, who is set to be a free agent after the season, and perhaps even Heliot Ramos, who is under team control through 2029.
If Stanton does return, the fit is awkward. The Yankees need Ben Rice at designated hitter full time, with Luis Garcia Jr. and Paul Goldschmidt splitting first base.
That leaves Stanton looking like a bench bat, which is a lot of money and a lot of name value for a role player. The Marlins are covering much of the remaining contract, leaving the Yankees responsible for $2 million this year and $15 million next year, but even that does not solve the question of why a second-string DH should take up one of the five bench spots that will be available once rosters expand from 26 to 28 on Sept.
For now, the Yankees got a temporary break from the roster squeeze when Ryan McMahon went on the 10-day IL Friday with a Grade 2 left thumb sprain. When Bellinger comes off the IL on Sunday, which appears likely, the Yankees are expected to send Max Schuemann back to Triple-A two days after calling him up to replace McMahon.
Without McMahon’s injury, the pressure point would have been even tighter. The likely choices then would have been Jones to Triple-A or Rosario to DFA territory, especially with Rosario’s third-base metrics among the worst in baseball and his .193 average against left-handed pitching in 193 plate appearances not helping his case. To keep Aaron Judge, Bellinger, McMahon and Stanton on the 26-man roster without any injuries, Schuemann and Jones would be optioned for sure, Rosario probably would be designated for assignment, and the Yankees would eventually gain another position player when the roster grows in September.
Jones, for his part, is trying not to get caught up in the uncertainty.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Jones said. “That’s above my pay grade.
I show up every day and do my thing. I play as hard as I can.”
The 25-year-old has clearly enjoyed this stretch, getting regular run over the last month after earlier call-ups had him in more limited spots. He now has an apartment in Manhattan, though he says he is “paying way too much” to park his car in a garage.
And while the Yankees sort through the Stanton question, Jones keeps doing what he can to make the decision harder. Right now, he is giving them more than Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells or Ramos, and the scouts’ answer suggests he offers more than Stanton, too. If Trent Grisham cools off again, Jones may even belong in that conversation.
For the Yankees, though, the cruel part is obvious. Jones can help now, and still be the one sent to Scranton when the roster tightens again.
It would be unfair. It also feels inevitable.
In Other News...
Yankees Fans Just Got A Bittersweet Didi Gregorius Update
Didi Gregorius has officially retired from professional baseball, closing the book on a career that took him from the majors to the Mexican League and, most recently, to the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic. For Yankees fans, the news lands with a little extra weight because Gregorius remains best known for his five seasons in New York, where he became a steady presence at shortstop from 2015 to 2019.
His MLB run stretched across 11 seasons and also included stops with the Reds, Diamondbacks and Phillies, but the Yankees years are the ones that still shape how he is remembered in the Bronx. Gregorius finished with a .257 batting average, 134 home runs and 530 RBIs in 1,077 games, a solid career line for a player whose time in pinstripes gave the club one of its more dependable everyday performers of that era. [Read more 🡒]
LeMahieu Just Added An Awkward Twist To His Yankees Exit
DJ LeMahieu found a different kind of success in his first season as a manager, leading the Royal Oak Leprechauns to a Northwoods League championship and adding a new line to a baseball rsum that already had plenty of major league mileage. After years with the Yankees, the veteran infielder has shifted into a dugout role and immediately shown he can still guide a team through a long summer grind, with the Leprechauns leaning on the kind of grit and consistent effort he said carried them all the way to the title.
For Yankees fans, the awkward part is what comes next. LeMahieu was released by New York in 2025 and never played another major league game, but the financial piece of his departure has not fully disappeared, since he is still being paid by the Yankees under his existing contract. So while his on-field exit from the organization is already in the rearview, the last chapter of his Yankees tenure is still showing up in the team's books. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Prospect Is Forcing A Tough Debate About The Teams Future
Luis Durangos rise through the Yankees system has become one of the more intriguing development stories in the organization this season. The 23-year-old outfielder has hit .338/.396/.411 across three levels while swiping 43 bases, and his style is hard to miss: a high-contact approach built more around putting the ball in play and using the ground than trying to drive it over the fence. It is the kind of profile that can stand out in an era obsessed with power, especially when it keeps producing against better competition.
The debate for the Yankees is less about whether Durango has improved and more about how much of this can carry over to the majors. His unconventional swing path draws obvious comparisons to Ichiro Suzuki, but there are real questions about whether his body type and contact-first game will translate the same way against big league pitching. For an organization always weighing present needs against future upside, Durango has made himself impossible to ignore, even if the answer on his long-term fit is still unsettled. [Read more 🡒]