ANAHEIM, Calif. - Spencer Jones was the one Yankee who gave Monday night any life, and the bigger story around him is getting harder for the club to ignore.
With New York down four in the fifth inning at Angel Stadium, Jones turned on a Walbert Urena pitch and sent it 398 feet to center for his eighth home run. That blast accounted for the Yankees’ only run in a 10-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, a game that said plenty about the current state of their outfield picture.
Urena was sharp for the Angels, giving up one run over seven innings while striking out eight as Los Angeles ended a seven-game losing streak. Yankees rookie Elmer Rodriguez took the loss after allowing four runs in 3 2/3 innings. The Yankees finished with six hits, Jones went 1-for-3 and Trent Grisham finished 0-for-4.
Jones’ night fit the pattern he has built over the last month: enough production to keep forcing the issue. Even after Cody Bellinger came off the injured list, Jones has kept getting starts against right-handed pitching.
In August, he played 28 games and hit .239 with four homers, five doubles, 17 runs, 13 RBIs and five stolen bases. His latest homer lifted him to .238 with eight home runs, 25 RBIs, eight steals and a .739 OPS in 181 at-bats.
Grisham, meanwhile, is moving the other way. The veteran center fielder is 2-for-36 over his last nine games and is batting .209 with a .307 on-base percentage, .397 slugging percentage and .704 OPS.
He has still supplied 18 home runs and 57 RBIs in 411 at-bats, but the defensive edge that once helped define his case is not nearly as clean now. Statcast has him at minus-6 Outs Above Average, while Baseball Reference lists him at minus-8 Defensive Runs Saved in center field.
That’s what makes this more than a late-August slump conversation. Aaron Judge could be back during the Yankees’ next homestand, which begins Sept. 8 against Colorado. With Bellinger in left, the Yankees are heading toward a real decision on how much center field belongs to Grisham and how much they’re willing to hand Jones while they chase a postseason spot.
Joel Sherman addressed that exact question on his Pinstripe Post podcast, and he didn’t soften his view of Grisham’s recent work.
“It hasn’t been good. And hasn’t been good.
It’s been unacceptable. It’s been unacceptable,” Sherman said.
Sherman’s larger point was that Jones is no longer just a promising extra bat. He’s giving the Yankees the kind of patient at-bats they like from Grisham, while adding more speed and athleticism into the mix.
“Spencer Jones is kind of making us think twice about the center field position,” Sherman said.
He also made clear that, if roster flexibility were the only issue, Jones would not be the one he’d move on from.
“If everyone had options, he would not be the one that you would send down,” Sherman said.
The numbers back up the challenge Jones is posing. He has nearly matched Grisham’s home-run rate despite logging 230 fewer at-bats.
Jones has homered once every 22.6 at-bats; Grisham once every 22.8. Jones also has eight stolen bases in 181 at-bats, one fewer than Grisham has in 411, and his .739 OPS is 35 points higher.
The defensive comparison is not as one-sided as it once seemed, either. Statcast has Jones at minus-1 Outs Above Average across his outfield work, while Grisham sits at minus-6 in center.
The Yankees still have reasons to be careful with Jones. He swings and misses a lot, and Aaron Boone has already acknowledged that strikeouts are going to be part of his game. Even so, the more major league time he gets, the more he has settled in.
There’s also a bigger financial layer waiting beyond this season. Grisham is on the one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer he accepted last November and is scheduled to become a free agent after the season. Jones, by contrast, is a rookie who has already made a 2027 everyday role look like a real internal possibility.
That doesn’t mean Grisham is out the door. The Yankees have announced no decision on his future, and his power, walks and experience still matter for a 78-60 club sitting atop the AL wild-card race.
But the math has shifted. Bringing Grisham back on another deal would look very different if the Yankees believe Jones can hold center field for far less money. Sherman called Jones’ recent run a “calling card” for 2027 and said it’s no longer outlandish to see him as a potentially above-average starting outfielder.
Judge’s return could force the issue even sooner. Boone previously discussed Jones and Heliot Ramos as a right-field platoon while Judge was out, with Grisham in center. Now Jones’ August surge and Grisham’s slide have changed the conversation.
Monday’s game put the contrast in plain view. The Yankees got one run, and Jones hit it. With Judge getting closer and October approaching, the rookie’s rise is making the center-field decision tougher now and raising a bigger question about Grisham’s future in the Bronx after the season.
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