The Yankees may not be able to keep treating Spencer Jones like a temporary fix against left-handed pitching.
Jones has been making a strong case in a small but noisy sample, and the numbers jump off the page. In 29 plate appearances against lefties, he is hitting .320/.414/.720 with eight hits, a double, a triple, two home runs and three walks. That production has come across 18 games, and while there is always room to wonder about luck in that kind of sample, the extra-base damage makes the line look a lot more real.
One of the clearest examples came against Chris Sale. Sale has been shutting down left-handed hitters all season, but Jones turned one of those matchups into a triple by driving a ball into the gap. Sale’s own numbers against lefties are brutal - lefty sluggers are hitting .237/.293/.342 against him, with only seven doubles, a triple and a homer - which is part of what made Jones’ contact stand out.
That is also why Aaron Boone’s decision to pinch-hit Heliot Ramos for Jones in Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Mariners raised eyebrows. Boone explained it this way, according to the New York Post’s Mark W.
Sanchez: "That's one of the reasons we brought Heliot Ramos in was his presence against lefties." But Jones has already shown enough against same-side pitching to make that move look questionable, especially with Ramos offering little beyond batting from the other side of the plate.
The bigger picture matters here too. Until Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton come back, the Yankees do not have many hitters who can change a game with one swing.
Rice is one of them, and Jones is starting to look like another. In a lineup that has often had to scrape for runs, that kind of power is hard to sit on the bench.
The underlying data backs up the production. Jones owns a 94.3 MPH average exit velocity, a 14.5% barrel rate and a 58.7% hard-hit rate.
His bat speed is elite as well, sitting at 77.7 MPH. When he connects, the ball does not stay put for long.
Jones will lose some at-bats once Judge, Stanton and Cody Bellinger return, but if this keeps up, Boone’s choices get tougher. And depending on what happens with Stanton, who has not played a game since it was still Spring here in New York, Jones could even push his way into postseason at-bats.
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There is still a lot of runway before anything concrete can happen, and Sato is not without questions on the other side of the ball, which makes the fit more intriguing than clean. Even so, for a Yankees organization that has not landed a major NPB star since Masahiro Tanaka, the possibility of adding a bat like Satos offers a glimpse at a major upgrade if the pursuit develops in the way the front office hopes. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees May Have Traded For Another Jasson Dominguez Problem
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So far, though, the fit has been far rougher than the pedigree suggested. Since arriving in New York, Ramos has looked out of sync at the plate and uncertain in the field, leaving the Yankees with another outfield situation that still feels unsettled. For a team already trying to manage the long-term questions around Jasson Dominguez, the hope was that this move would reduce the noise, not add another layer to it. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Catching Prospect Keeps Fighting Through A Heartbreaking Personal Loss
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Now with Double-A Somerset, Alfonzo is trying to keep building a new chapter one game at a time. His recent walk-off blast gave the Patriots a needed lift and gave him a much-needed breakthrough, the kind of moment that can matter for reasons far beyond the standings as he continues settling into the Yankees system. [Read more 🡒]